MANILA, Philippines -- Should presidential aspirants, Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manuel Villar, gloat over the growing defection of key administration officials to their fold going into next year’s elections?

Administration officials admitted on Sunday the existence of such an exodus, but maintained that it was not a symptom of the floundering presidential bid of Lakas-Kampi standard bearer, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and his poor survey ratings.

Mayor Ramon Guico, president of the League of Municipalities in the Philippines, said “The problem is not Gibo (Teodoro’s nickname). These defections are strictly local. The presidential elections have nothing to do with them.”

Guico gave the statement to the Inquirer, when asked whether Teodoro’s unpopularity—and Aquino’s and Villar’s apparently high ratings—were driving away administration party members.

Gabriel Claudio, Lakas-Kampi secretary general, admitted that the party was expecting more members to transfer to rival parties.

But he insisted that such movements were the “natural and expected consequences of party intramurals and fall-outs from the party’s selection process for local candidates.”

“True, there have been defections among local officials and there may even be more,” he said in a statement.

“Those not chosen or will imminently not be chosen will naturally seek shelter with other political parties or other presidential bets.”

In a way, he said such party members were good riddance, allowing Lakas-Kampi to “shed off excess weight and enter the ring leaner, meaner and in its best fighting form.”

Guico, the mayor of Binalonan town in Pangasinan and an avid supporter of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said the party “cannot do anything” about party members leaving Lakas-Kampi simply because they could not get its official nomination.

“Let’s say there’s a third-term mayor seeking a higher position being held by a party mate, who can still serve for a few more years if elected, the party can’t simply accommodate the mayor,” he said.

Guico cited the so-called “equity of the incumbent” rule, which put priority on the sitting party member for the official nomination. Such a rule failed to resolve widespread local conflicts in the 2007 elections.

Claudio said the departure of party members spared Lakas-Kampi the “agony of having to arbitrate local conflicts.”

“It’s what you might call arbitration by attrition,” he said.

“These defections are actually doing us a favor. The positive result of these defections is that the administration party will have a single, solid and formidable lineup of candidates at the local level that will not be distracted by internal conflicts and therefore be better able to concentrate on helping the administration’s national candidates win in their respective areas.”

Claudio also cried foul over the reported defection of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Cavite Gov. Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi to Aquino’s Liberal Party, saying the two were never members of the Lakas-Kampi to begin with.

“Reports of a so-called exodus of Lakas-Kampi members are either erroneous or grossly out of perspective,” he said, noting that Lim was once a member of Joseph Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilpino while Maliksi has always been an LP member.

But Claudio failed to acknowledge that Maliksi ran under the administration’s banner in the 2007 elections.