MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Noli de Castro can expect to have the full backing of the administration’s Lakas- Kampi-CMD if he decides to join the party and run for President in 2010 under its banner, Malacañang said Wednesday.

“If he [De Castro] joins the party and the party accepts him, then you can be assured the party machinery will be there,” said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the party’s president as well as member of the national executive committee.

For that matter, anybody who aligns with the party and decides to run under its banner would be assured of the “entire machinery of the entire Lakas-Kampi-CMD,” he said.

De Castro has indicated that he might just run for President as an independent, as he has done in his previous candidacies for senator and vice president.

Costly campaign

But he admitted that his lack of financial resources needed to wage a costly presidential campaign was weighing on his decision to seek the presidency.

The administration party is wooing De Castro and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro to join the party and submit to its selection process to choose the party presidential standard bearer in 2010.

While Teodoro has openly declared his presidential ambition and desire to seek Ms Arroyo’s endorsement, De Castro has kept his cards close to his chest.

Ermita said he has no idea why De Castro said he wanted to run as an independent. But he wasn’t surprised by his concern about logistics.

“I think he is just being practical when he said that it’s a factor. So we just have to believe him and believe his statement,” he said.

Kiko receptive

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan Wednesday said he welcomed a possible alliance with De Castro who earlier said he would consider Pangilinan as a running mate.

Speaking from the United States, Pangilinan said he believed that an independent tandem would have a better chance in a four- or five-way contest.

“I believe that in a four- or five-way race, an independent ticket running on a platform of reforms that is neither the administration nor the opposition will get the nod of a significant percentage of the voters,” Pangilinan said.

“Most voters view politicians as pare-pareho lang lahat at walang pinagkaiba [undifferentiated]. An alternative can capture the imagination of the people,” he said.

Pangilinan, who ran and won as an independent in the 2007 senatorial elections, has declared his intention to seek the vice presidency in 2010, again as an independent.

He said he was heartened by the trust and confidence in him that De Castro has expressed by singling him out as a good choice for a running mate.

He said their long association as members of the Wednesday Group in the Senate dating back to 2001 may have given De Castro a better idea of him.

He said he and De Castro will be attending the Gawad Kalinga summit in Boston on Friday.

“We are working towards forming an independent ticket, an alternative ticket, an alternative to politics as usual. I believe running as an independent should be the first and only option if we are to provide genuine alternatives for our people clamoring for change,” Pangilinan said.

Election mode

Ermita Wednesday confirmed that he had been named president and chief executive officer of Lakas-Kampi-CMD by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the party chair.

This should be seen as a sign that the administration is keen on the 2010 elections, he said.

“We’re on election mode. The objective of the political exercise is of course to win,” he said.

As party president, Ermita said he would focus on registering the party; reestablishing links with Christian and Muslim Democrats, as proposed by former President Fidel Ramos; creating an arbitration committee to resolve local conflicts; and activating a committee to select the party’s standard bearer and other candidates, among others.