MANILA, Philippines--From Ate Vi to Edu.

With Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos out of the picture and Sen. Loren Legarda yet to give her nod, the ruling coalition is eyeing TV game show host and actor Edu Manzano as its candidate for Vice President.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita identified Manzano, who is Santos’ ex-husband and the former chair of the Optical Media Board, as the personality being bruited about as the "less predictable but no less formidable'' potential candidate for vice president of Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Ermita, the party’s interim president, said the idea was recently mentioned by party secretary general Gabriel Claudio. Claudio did not reply to questions sent by text.

Manzano headed the OMB until he quit last August, ostensibly to pursue personal advocacies.

With less than a month left for the filing of candidacy certificates, the ruling coalition must find a "viable'' running mate for its expected presidential standard bearer, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Santos, a longtime party member, has declared she preferred to seek re-election in Batangas.

If talks with Legarda Legarda to agree to become Teodoro's running mate were still fail, the party had indicated it could always field someone from its own ranks.

Ermita said that Manzano was being eyed along with party member Sen. Ramon ``Bong'' Revilla Jr. and Tourism Secretary Ace Durano of the Nationalist People's Coalition.

``Senator Revilla … won convincingly when he ran for the Senate. He is usually exposed to the public because of his activities as an actor. So we cannot fault the party for considering a person like Senator Revilla because he can enhance,'' Ermita said.

``Yes, he's being considered. He's got a good thing going for him because he's good-looking,'' he said.

But the party is thought to prefer a popular entertainer or personality to take the VP slot to shore up the ratings of Teodoro, who has fared poorly in surveys months after declaring his presidential plan.

Ermita clarified that Manzano, Revilla and Durano were not “spare tires” to be tapped only if the party failed to get Legarda.

``We're not talking of the last resort. We're just saying they're among the choices,'' he said.