MANILA, Philippines – The ruling administration party Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) is still scouring for a vice presidential candidate with just a week to go before the filing of the certificates of candidacy.

Emerging Wednesday from a meeting of the national executive committee, which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo attended in Malacañang, party stalwarts said the slot for vice president remained a guessing game.

“Nothing exciting happened. We are still in the process of choosing our vice president,” Palawan Representative Antonio Alvarez, one of the spokesmen of Lakas-Kampi-CMD said in a phone interview.

Everything will be made final in the national convention of the merged party on November 19 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), said Alvarez.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, party vice chairman, said that “ultimately,” the choice of his a runningmate will be made by Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the party’s standard-bearer.

Alvarez confirmed that Senator Loren Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) is out of the picture.

Both Nograles and Alvarez said one more name was floated during the meeting so that Mindanao would have a representative, said Senator Miguel Zubiri.

Officials of the party said Lakas-Kamp-CMD was considering Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and television host Edu Manzano as possible runningmate of Teodoro.

Asked if the party was not worried that it has yet to firm up its slate with a week to go before the filing of the CoCs, Nograles said, “We are the majority and we can wait until we finish the line up.”

“It’s not who files first that wins, sometimes the last comes out the first,” the Speaker said.

At the Ayes and Nays forum in Quezon City, Nueva Ecija Representative Eduardo Nonato Joson said surprises might still happen in the run-up to the filing of CoC.

Joson said Arroyo could choose to step down if she was running for a congressional seat in Pampanga. Vice President Noli de Castro, as her constitutional successor, will be thrust to the presidency.

“If she is willing to step down to give way to a Noli candidacy to strengthen the party in the 2010 elections, the possibly Noli will go for it although the window of opportunity is fast closing in or by December 1,” Joson said.

“This may be the last surprise after Noynoy [Senator Benigno Aquino III’s declaration that he will run] and Chiz [Senator Francis Escudero’s departure from the NPC],” he added.