Administration to adopt Villar?

Is the Arroyo administration serious in considering the adoption of Manny Villar as their presidential bet? 

The administration party has denied a report that it will adopt Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. as its standard-bearer in the 2010 elections.

Radio dzBB’s Aileen Intia on Friday quoted Presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio as saying that the report was baseless because only a bonafide member of the party could become Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s presidential candidate.

Claudio, Lakas-Kampi-CMD secretary-general, reportedly said that nobody in the party had been authorized to negotiate with or extend support for Nacionalista Party president Villar, who consistently tops surveys on probable presidential candidates.

He also denied about the result of an August 20 straw vote among members of the party’s national executive committee that favored a presidential aspirant from the opposition.

But Intia said that Claudio admitted that the panel had conducted an informal survey on the party’s choice for a possible standard-bearer, the result of which was submitted to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last August 26 in front of the members of the committee. He said the party’s official choice would be known on September 16.

source: GMAnews.tv