MANILA, Philippines -- With the elections just around the corner, Senate Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called for a “change of attitude” and “expressions of flexibility” among presidential aspirants from the opposition to be able to unite the group.

Pimentel made the call in response to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s statement that the Liberal Party’s presidential bet for 2010, Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas, would not give way to another opposition candidate.

This early, Aquino, an LP member, dismissed the idea to become Roxas’ running mate.

And if the party will fail to field its own candidate for vice president, Aquino said the next option would be to convince the other presidential bets from the opposition to run for vice president.

Aside from Roxas, other opposition members reportedly eyeing the presidency were Senators Manny Villar, Loren Legarda, and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.

“Syempre ang maibibigay lang namin e yung [Of course, we can only offer the] slot for vice president because we really believe that Mar will make a good president. Mayroon talagang mao-offer ang aming kandidato [Our candidate has really something to offer],” he said over the phone.

But Pimentel said such a move by LP would be a “big letdown” to efforts to unify the opposition.

“That’s going to make the unification more difficult. Ibig sabihin kung ayaw niyang [Roxas] mag-slide. ano ang sabihin ng iba [This means that if he doesn’t want to slide, what will the others say]? E di hindi na rin rin sila mag-slide [So they will also not slide],” he said in a separate phone interview.

“It’s a big letdown for those who are still hoping for a unified slate of the opposition. Nonetheless, we still hope that there would be a softening of attitude among our candidates,” he said.

To unify the opposition, Pimentel said there should be “some change of attitude of the presidential candidates now.”

He said there must also be “some expressions of flexibility” among would-be candidates.

“There has to be some kind of procedure, some kind of leveling of field of choice,” Pimentel said.

“If the administration will field only one candidate and there are many candidates from the opposition, then there’s no hope for the opposition or any opposition member to win the presidency,” he further said.