MANILA, Philippines?After bolting the party that built him up to be a presidential candidate, Sen. Francis ``Chiz?? Escudero may just decide to run for vice president, according to a party-list representative who is a close friend of Escudero.

And if he were to pursue his electoral plans, Escudero will not be joining a new party, said An Waray party-list member Florencio Noel.

?Most likely he will run for vice president as an independent,? said Noel.

Noel said Escudero has a fighting chance in the vice-presidential race, and believes he can launch a campaign and muster enough support nationwide even without any political party behind him.

While Escudero has been placing in the middle of the pack of aspiring presidents in the most recent surveys, he has fared better in surveys assessing the chances of possible vice presidents. He and Sen. Loren Legarda topped a Pulse Asia survey on possible vice presidents that was released in August.

In the latest Pulse Asia survey of vice-presidential preferences, however, Sen. Manuel Roxas emerged on top.

Escudero recently resigned from the Nationalist People?s Coalition, where he has been a member for over a decade, saying an aspiring president should not be shackled by anybody or any party.

The NPC had been grooming him to be its presidential candidate in 2010.

Escudero has not made any formal announcement that he was running for president, but he has said that if he did run, it would be for the top post.