MANILA, Philippines -- Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats standard bearer Gilbert ``Gibo” Teodoro is not giving up Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao to another party without a fight.
A source in the party said Teodoro instructed the party’s new president, Sarangani Governor Miguel Dominguez, to sit down with Pacquiao and come up with a compromise plan that would allow the rich boxer to run for the province’s congressional seat.
The source said Teodoro remained confident that Pacquiao would stay with Lakas-Kampi and its local machinery despite aggressive moves by his rival, Senator Manuel Villar, to get the boxer under the Nacionalista Party.
Dominguez could play a key role in retaining Pacquiao because the boxer wanted to run in his province.
Sarangani Representative Erwin Chiongbian, a Lakas-Kampi member, is on his third and final term but he intends to pick one of his kin to run in his place next year. The Chiongbians have ruled the province since 1992 when the famliy’s late patriarch, the Representative James Chiongbian, created a separate province out of South Cotabato.
Pacquiao failed in his first attempt to run as congressman of South Cotabato when he ran as a Liberal Party member in 2004, which he lost to incumbent Representative Darlene Antonino Custodio. He switched to Sarangani, the birthplace of his wife Jinkee.
Reginald Velasco, Lakas-Kampi deputy secretary general, said Pacquiao was considered a member in good standing of the party although he has not taken his oath. Pacquiao joined Kampi or the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s political party, in September 2008 before it merged with Lakas-Kampi last May.
Paquiao’s adviser, Deputy National Security Adviser Luis ``Chavit’’ Singson, said that his protégé remained bent on running for Congress in Sarangani after he was informed that he was ineligible to be a representative of a party-list group.
Singson said that losing congressional bets were barred from representing party-list groups, which meant that Pacquiao’s only option to enter Congress was through Sarangani.
Aside from retaining Pacquiao, Teodoro is looking for a new push to his presidential bid with the emergence of his volunteer group, the Green Team, which grew out of the social networking site Facebook.
