'Nearly half of all House members prefer Noynoy'

Half of almost all the members of the administration-dominated House of Representatives prefer Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III over other prospective presidential candidates, a congressman said Thursday. Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco, a member of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, said his informal "verbal survey" on his colleagues' preferred presidential candidates revealed Aquino as the most favored bet for the 2010 elections, with Senator Manuel Villar Jr. second and Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. placing third. "This is the result of my own personal survey," Cuenco said during the weekly Serye Forum at Quezon City. Cuenco said he surveyed "almost all" of the House's 268 members. Cuenco later said in an interview after the forum that half of those he surveyed and "exchanged notes" with personally preferred Aquino over others seeking the presidency. Cuenco, however, did not cite figures, saying he and the other House members just "opened (their) hearts" about the candidates. Lakas-Kampi-CMD has around 150 members in the House. There are also several party-lists with representatives in the chamber that are affiliated with the administration. Surveys Aquino is the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP), which has only around 20 House members. Villar is from the Nacionalista Party (NP) which has about 15 House members. Both senators have been leading in public perception suveys, while Teodoro has been lagging behind other presidential aspirants. LP spokesperson Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III of Quezon province told reporters that he was not among those Cuenco surveyed. But "if the survey is true ... it is reflective of the mood of the country," he said. When asked whether he was aware of the verbal survey, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said, "that's not my survey, that's his survey," adding that "maybe everyone else (is) making their own survey." Cuenco's revelation came a few days after two members of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Cabinet, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III, said their personal sentiments are leaning toward Aquino. Both Romulo and Bello served under the administration of the senator's mother, the late former President Corazon Aquino. The popular leader's death last August 1 after battling colon cancer resulted in a clamor for her son to seek the presidency, which he heeded last September 9. - GMANews.TV