Durano rejects team-up with Teodoro in 2010

He may be one of those being eyed to team up with administration party standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. in the 2010 elections. But Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano is not interested. Durano said he would not run against senators Manuel "Mar" Roxas of the Liberal Party and Lorna Regina "Loren" Legarda of the Nationalist People's Coalition because two vice presidential aspirants are his allies. "Si Senator Mar, mentor ko na 'yan since my first term as congressman. Si Senator Loren naman, kapartido ko sa Nationalist People's Coalition," said Durano in a text message to GMANews.TV on Saturday. (Senator Mar has been my mentor since my first term as congressman, while Sen. Loren is my partymate.) Durano, who has been serving the Arroyo Cabinet for several years now, was the spokesperson of the ruling party in the 2007 elections. He was appointed as acting general manager of the Philippine Tourism Authority in May 2008. He served as representative of Cebu’s fifth district, the bailiwick of his family, from 1998 to 2004. The Tourism chief is one of the four being eyed by Lakas-Kampi-CMD party as vice presidential running mate of Teodoro, according to party leader and executive secretary Eduardo Ermita. The others are Legarda, Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., and former Optical Media Board chair Edu Manzano. But Durano might run for senator. “No plans to run for VP, but I am thinking about running for the Senate." He said he would give voice to the interest of of the "underrepresented" sectors in the Visayas and Mindanao if he would be elected to the Senate. - ANDREO C. CALONZO, GMANews.TV