MANILA, Philippines—Senator Manuel Villar will announce within the next two weeks his choice of running mate for the May 2010 elections, Nacionalista Party spokesman Gilbert Remulla said Monday.

Remulla was tightlipped, however, about who the running mate might be. He would “neither confirm nor deny” if it was Senator Loren Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), who has announced she is running for vice president.

The NPC lost its presumptive standard-bearer when Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero abruptly resigned last week. Legarda said she would announce her new running mate also within two weeks.

Remulla issued the statement after Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III scored Villar for still not having found a suitable vice presidential running mate.

“In politics as in most things, timing is everything. Maybe in his inexperience, Noynoy does not know that yet,” Remulla said.

Aquino had said Villar claimed to be in the opposition but had not criticized the administration. He also questioned why Villar lost both the speakership of the House and the presidency of the Senate.

Remulla said Villar lost the speakership after he moved to have the articles of impeachment against then President Joseph Estrada transferred to the Senate.

He said Villar lost the Senate presidency because presidential aspirants in the upper chamber saw him as the “biggest threat” to their ambitions.