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Noynoy mum on higher post despite growing support


Despite a growing clamor for him to seek a higher post, Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III on Friday kept mum on his actual plans for the upcoming 2010 national elections. Aquino, who is being pushed by some political figures to seek the presidency or the vice-presidency next year, said he "can just withhold comment" on the Noynoy for President Movement launched by the Heightened Ethics League of the Philippines (Help) Thursday until he talks to the group. "Let me just say that it is truly heartwarming to see our countrymen actively participating our country's political life. In their action we can see an empowered people which is the focal point of my parent's advocacies," Aquino said in a text message to GMANews.TV. The senator is the only son of the late senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., who has been hailed a martyr since his assassination on Aug. 21, 1983 during the Marcos era, and former President and democracy icon Corazon Aquino, who passed away August 1 this year after a year-long battle with colon cancer. Clamor for the senator to seek a higher post in 2010 heightened after Mrs. Aquino's death, but his colleagues at the Liberal Party (LP) said they cannot speak categorically on their plans for the senator until he decides what post he wants to seek in the coming elections. "It cannot be denied that Noynoy has support of the party, not necessarily for president," LP spokesperson and Quezon Re. Lorenzo Tañada III told GMANews.TV, as he pointed out that the party campaigned hard for both Senators Aquino and Francis Pangilinan in the 2007 elections. LP convention Pangilinan has earlier expressed his intention to seek the vice-presidency, while LP president and Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II has declared his presidential bid. "[But] it will be unfair to ask the question if he (Noynoy) has support for the presidency since he has not declared his intention to run either for the position of president or vice-president. Support for him will come out openly in the party for any position once he makes up his mind," Tañada said. Noynoy, who still has three more years to his term, had said that he is not inclined to seek a higher post at this point in time. Tañada said the LP will hold a convention and follow its selection process if two or more members express their intention to seek the same post in 2010. But so far, since only Pangilinan and Roxas have declared their bids to run for the country's two highest elective posts, the party will just "let the other organizations outside the LP do what they want to do." Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Rufino Biazon, a member of the LP, likewise told GMANews.TV that the while the party respects the citizens' clamor, it cannot decide until Sen. Aquino does. "While we respect the right of citizens to launch their own movement, we just hope there will be no other groups who will take advantage of the situation and try to sow intrigue and disunity in LP," Biazon added. - GMANews.TV

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