Game show host Edu Manzano is Lakas bet for vice president
By Katherine Evangelista
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:01:00 11/13/2009
Filed Under: Politics, Elections, Eleksyon 2010
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 4) Popular television game show host Edu Manzano is joining the 2010 political contest as Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro’s running mate.
Teodoro paraded Manzano, 54, as his vice presidential candidate at a news conference in Makati City Friday, a move seen as a bid to boost the administration party’s struggling campaign.
"I need a running mate who will be able to influence the way our people think," said Teodoro after the pair engaged in awkward fist bumps for the cameras.
"He would be a big influence, a motivating tool to launch our platform," he said.
Teodoro, 45, is the presidential candidate for the ruling Lakas Kampi CMD but he is lagging badly in the polls with just a four percent share of the projected vote, according to the latest surveys.
Senator Benigno Aquino III, son of the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino, is the clear favorite with 60 percent support.
Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said he initiated talks with Manzano, who was being wooed by rival parties to join their senatorial slates.
"I felt I have the obligation, after helping initiate his (Teodoro) candidacy, to assure him with a partner that can live up to his expectations," said Puno, who was also being eyed for the vice presidency by the Lakas-Kampi-CMD but backed out, saying he wanted to focus on his work as chief of the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Teodoro said he was happy that Manzano, a former vice mayor of Makati, has accepted his invitation through Puno to be "the next vice president of the Philippines."
Asked what was his initial reaction when offered the vice presidential candidacy, Manzano said: “I was stunned.â€
He likened the feeling to having been hit by a “Pacquiao punch.â€
“I wasn’t expecting it,†said Manzano, who also served as Optical Media Board chairman. “I think it was a Pacquiao punch. I felt dizzy.
Earlier, Manzano’s name cropped up as a possible senatorial candidate for Aquino’s Liberal Party.
Media reports also said former president Joseph “Erap†Estrada, who is seeking to run again for president next year, was considering getting Manzano for his senatorial lineup.
Manzano confirmed that he was offered the positions, adding he had spoken to all political parties.
“As a matter of fact, I was able to talk to all parties. But I think that the Lakas-Kampi made the right pitch,†he said.
“I have high hopes on the capability of Secretary Teodoro,†he said.
Filipinos have had a penchant for electing celebrities to high office.
Most famously, B-grade movie actor Estrada became president in 1998, before losing power in a bloodless coup three years later amid allegations of massive graft.
Estrada was jailed for life for corruption but later pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
His actor son Jose “Jinggoy†Estrada, is also a senator, while incumbent vice president Noli de Castro rose to prominence as a television presenter.
Arroyo, who cannot run for re-election, narrowly defeated the late Philippine movie king Fernando Poe in the 2004 election.
Born in the United States to Filipino parents, Manzano joined the US military at 17, serving for four years, before moving to Manila to pursue a full-time career in the local movie industry.
He has a child but is no longer with former movie queen-turned-provincial governor Vilma Santos, whom the ruling party had also briefly considered for the vice presidential post.
Manzano is currently dating a television presenter at GMA 7 television network, and hosts a game show program at the same station. With reports from Jocelyn Uy, Inquirer; Agence France-Presse
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