MANILA, Philippines?The election machinery of the administration party, Lakas-Kampi-CMD, could deliver up to 10.8 million votes for its standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro, his spokesperson said Wednesday.

Teodoro holds an ace because of the support of local officials who belong to Lakas Kampi and who are expected to work for his victory, according to Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay.

Magsaysay pointed out that 70 percent of electable local officials were running under Lakas-Kampi.

?The battle for the presidency will be won at the local and grassroots levels,? Magsaysay said.

?With our local leaders helping in the campaign, we can deliver to Secretary Teodoro between 20 percent and 30 percent of the estimated voter turnout of 36 million, which is 80 percent of the 45 million official voting population,? she said.

She added that the votes that the local leaders were expected to deliver would range from a low of 6.3 million ballots to a high of 10.8 million ballots.

Teodoro has been lagging in the surveys of voters? preference for the country?s next president. He has not even come within striking distance of the leader, his cousin, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party.

But Magsaysay said there was time for Teodoro?s numbers to climb in the four months before the elections.

She said Teodoro would garner more support as more people got to know his programs, his character and his integrity as a public servant.

?More recent mock polls in colleges and universities and in the business community are pointing to this direction convincingly,? she said.

Magsaysay also said that many local leaders joined the administration party because they believed that Teodoro?s platform of governance was the best.