DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines--Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. has said he regretted having picked then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be his running mate in the 1998 presidential election.

Not only that. With their political alliance in tatters, he said he believed the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., who battled Arroyo in the 2004 presidential contest, would have made a better president.

"I made a mistake in making her my running mate. Malaking pagkakamali (a big mistake)," De Venecia told reporters on Saturday.

De Venecia and Arroyo ran under the administration party Lakas-NUCD in the 1998 election. De Venecia lost to Joseph Estrada in the presidential contest but Arroyo won the vice presidency.

De Venecia said he also regretted helping Arroyo in the 2004 presidential election.

"Fernando Poe Jr. would have been a better president," he said.

Although Arroyo lost to Poe in Pangasinan in 2004, she won in De Venecia's district by more than 50,000 votes.

Speaking at the Asian Fisheries Academy here, De Venecia said Arroyo should heed the calls for her to step down.

"I am now 71 and I will not allow our country to get enmeshed in bribery and scandal and corruption," he said.