Gibo's poor ratings driving Lakas members away - official

The lackluster performance of their standard bearer in various surveys had forced about 30 to 40 percent of Lakas-Kampi-CMD members – with more expected to follow – to abandon ship, a party official said on Wednesday. “It saddens us to see them go but also in retrospect wala tayong magagawa dahil (we can’t do anything about it because it’s) survival. You can’t blame them," said Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, the party's vice president for Mindanao. He said the group – a merger of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) parties – is not disappointed with the exodus. “Thirty to 40 percent of the party has probably already left, [but] as we say in politics, for everyone that leaves, there is always an open door for somebody to come in," Zubiri said. Gibo's poor ratings The senator admitted that one of the reasons for the exodus is the dismal performance of their presidential bet, former Defense Secretary Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro Jr., in presidential surveys. “That is a common effect when you have a problem on the popularity of your presidential candidate. That’s been the case since time immemorial," he said. In the recent Pulse Asia nationwide survey, only two percent of the 1,800 respondents preferred Teodoro to be the country’s next president. The administration party is hoping Teodoro’s rating would catch up soon. “There is nowhere else to go but up. He [Teodoro] cannot go lower than 2 percent," Zubiri said. Internal squabble in the party also contributed to the exodus, the senator added. Defectors Among the latest Lakas-Kampi-CMD members to jump ship are Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny" Belmonte and Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista. The two would be joining Liberal Party (LP), which is fielding Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy" Aquino III as its standard bearer in next year’s elections. Belmonte had served in various government posts during the term of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, among them as president and general manager of the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS). Before them, former Senator Ralph Recto and his wife, Batangas governor Vilma Santos, also bolted Lakas-Kampi-CMD to join LP. “I wish them well and I wish them all the luck and I know they have to do this for their own personal or political reasons to survive," Zubiri said. Zubiri said the political realignments would peak during the period of the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC), which would start on Friday. National convention Lakas-Kampi-CMD will formally announce on Thursday the candidacies of Teodoro and actor Edu Manzano for president and vice-president, respectively, during its national convention at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City. Zubiri said it would not be President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who would raise Teodoro’s hand. “I don’t think she will lift up [Teodoro’s] hand. She feels that it should be the younger members of the party who should push for him" he said. - GMANews.TV