Roxas’s VP known by month’s end

Former Interior Secretary now Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II FILE PHOTO

Mar Roxas should have a vice presidential running mate by the end of the month, Budget Secretary Butch Abad said Thursday.

“Now is the time to finalize the decision and choose the vice presidential candidate, and I think there are options. Between now and the end of September, the choice has to be made by the presidential candidate, of course in consultation with the Liberal Party (LP),” Abad, a senior LP official, said in an interview.

The LP standard bearer has been having trouble convincing several prospective candidates to run with him. The deadline for filing certificates of candidacy is in mid-October.

Foremost among Roxas’ prospects was Sen. Grace Poe, who has been leading presidential surveys. Poe on Wednesday declared her own run for the presidency as an independent candidate, with Sen. Francis Escudero as her running mate.

“I was not so much disappointed, but it was an opportunity to unite the forces that are more or less moving in the same direction. But it’s how politics is, and we will adjust accordingly,” Abad said yesterday.

In his speech before the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines, Abad said that “in 2010, the good people of the Philippines elected a good leader [who] pursued good governance reforms.”

“And the result was an unstoppable and undeniable force of positive change for the Philippines.”

He said “the government needs to see [ongoing] projects through to the end.” Ben O. de Vera