By Fel V. Maragay

Vice President Noli ?Kabayan? de Castro remains on top of the list of the Lakas coalition?s potential presidential contenders but stalwarts of the ruling party are also considering Senator Manuel Villar, who topped a survey of presidential timbers conducted by the University of the Philippines.

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, Lakas secretary general, said it remains to be seen whether or not Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro will be able to dislodge De Castro from the list of the administration?s potential standard bearers even as he noted that both of them have yet to join Lakas as card-carrying members.

Lakas executive director Ray Roquero said De Castro enjoys wide advantage over his rivals because of his enduring popularity and unquestioned loyalty to President Arroyo.

Giving a similar assessment, presidential adviser on political affairs Gabriel Claudio said De Castro?s winnability can be a significant factor. ?The Vice President?s simplicity and folksiness the majority of our people can identify with and [he] has a track record of public service untainted by controversy.? It?s the winnability factor that Teodoro should build up if he wants to obtain the all-important endorsement,? Claudio said earlier Friday.

Zubiri disclosed that during last month?s Lakas national executive committee meeting at Clark, Pampanga, the names of Villar (Nacionalista Party) and Legarda (Nationalist People?s Coalition) cropped up in their list of prospective presidential candidates because they have a lot of friends in the administration party.

?There is a possibility that we can adopt a presidential candidate from the opposition through a coalition,? he told radio station dzBB.

But Zubiri said that when he sounded out Legarda on Lakas? invitation, she flatly rejected it. This leaves only Villar as the only potential ?import? from the opposition to be included in Lakas? selection process.

But NP spokesman Gilbert Remulla said although Villar is all-set to run for president, it would not be under the administration banner.

Interviewed by Standard-Today, Remulla said NP stalwarts are not ruling out the possibility of De Castro and Villar forging an alliance because of their personal friendship and the common principles that they adhere to.

He said they are not surprised at all that Villar is being considered as an alternative standard bearer of an administration coalition because of his ?non-confrontational? leadership style.

Remulla said that if De Castro feels that the administration will dump him in favor of Teodoro or any other aspirant, the Vice President is welcome to join the NP. De Castro has already declared that since he is already Vice President, there is no way for him but to gun for the number one post.

?There is always a room for negotiation and compromise,? Remulla said.

Remulla said that Villar, also NP head, ?is 110-percent ready to run for president and 200-percent ready to lead the country.?

He said Villar?s leadership and administrative ability were tested when he became speaker of the House of Representatives and later, Senate president, as well as in running his real estate empire.

According to Remulla, a former Cavite congressman, Villar has nobody yet for his vice presidential runningmate but he has already a partial list of senatorial candidates that include him (Remulla), Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III, Senator Pia Cayetano, former Senator Butz Aquino, and San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora.

Roquero said since Legarda was a former Lakas member, it is only natural that party members would try to win her back.

He said that Lakas is now conducting consultations with local party leaders in various regions on the choice of standard bearer. At the same time, he said they are concentrating on the merger of Lakas and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino which should be consummated by May.

Zubiri said that all political parties or coalitions should be able to choose their presidential, vice presidential, senatorial, congressional and local government candidates by May or June because the Commission on Elections has advanced the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy to Nov. 30 due to the plan to automate the elections.

The Lakas official also said that aspirants who have obtained negligible scores in the surveys have been eliminated from the shortlist of prospective presidential bets. ?I am sorry if some of my party mates will get angry with me for not mentioning their names anymore in the selection process. But this was the decision of the party. We are only being practical and realistic. If they are scoring too low in the surveys, how can we support their candidacy? ?

Zubiri said he was referring to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando who obtained only a 1-percent rating in the presidential preference survey conducted by Pulse Asia in February. Topping that survey was De Castro with 19 percent, followed by Francis Escudero (17 percent), former President Joseph Estrada (16 percent), Villar (15 percent) and Legarda (12 percent).

But Villar topped the survey conducted by students of Communication Research 165 of UP. The study said 15 percent of respondents would vote for Villar; 10 percent for Escudero. It also showed that 79 percent of the respondents rated Villar the most popular potential candidate, followed by Senator Loren Legarda, 48 percent; De Castro, 45 percent; Mar Roxas, 34 percent; and Bayani Fernando, 26 percent.