BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—Tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco will not be supporting any of his two nephews eyeing the presidency in 2010 but will instead back the standard-bearer of the party he founded, the Nationalist People's Coalition.
Cojuangco said even if his nephews—Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, standard-bearer of the Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats, and Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, the Liberal Party's presidential candidate— are running for president, as founder of the NPC, he will support his party.
Cojuangco told reporters here Saturday he no longer involved himself in the selection process at NPC but he believed the party was going to field a presidential candidate in May next year.
"The NPC has not put up anybody yet; we will wait. I suppose they will. I am no longer active, it's the younger ones that are deciding for the party," Cojuangco said.
"The NPC is going to field a candidate I think. I think after these calamities they will decide," he added.
He said the last he heard was that the party had left it to Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda to decide who between them should run for president under the NPC.
Asked if he would be in a dilemma if the NPC fielded a candidate while his two nephews ran under different parties, Cojuangco replied, "No. Why should it be a dilemma for me? I'm the founder of the party. I think I have to support my own party that I founded; I think it is but normal."
"Yung isang nephew ko hindi naman namin pinaalis, kami ang iniwan. Eh, ang ibig sabihin wala kaming kwenta sa kanya. Simple lang di ba? (One of my nephews left even if we did not ask him to leave. It only means that we are of no consequence to him.) So why should that be a bother to me?" said Cojuanco, referring to Teodoro, who left the NPC to pursue his candidacy under the administration party.
"The other nephew belongs to another party; I wish him luck," he said, referring to Aquino.
Asked if he and Aquino have talked, Cojuangco said he has not talked to any politician except to members of the NPC.
Aquino said during a visit to Bacolod on Thursday that while he has not had a chance to talk to his uncle, there had been "a few back-door talks" going on between his uncle and some of his backers.
"But at the end of the day I think we have to talk to each other. But I haven't had the opportunity to do so," Aquino said.
Asked if he would ask his uncle for support, Aquino said, "He's my uncle. I would not presume to tell an elder what to do."
Teodoro, on the other hand, said during a visit to Negros Occidental on September 23 that he has neither spoken to his uncle for sometime nor did he know of any discussions of an NPC merger with the administration party.
Asked if he would personally initiate the talks, Teodoro said "I represent the party, I don't represent myself."
Asked if there were reconciliation efforts on a personal level with his uncle amid rumors of a rift, Teodoro said, "There's nothing to reconcile because there's nothing wrong on a personal level."
But he did say he did not expect his uncle's blessings since he belonged to another party.
Danding Cojuangco, while refusing to discuss his personal relationship with Teodoro, is however reportedly backing his brother, Henry, to run against the reelection bid of Teodoro's wife, Representative Monica Louise Prieto-Teodoro, in the first congressional district of Tarlac.
Teodoro has himself said that his wife would still be running for Congress next year, "unless there's some major change" that would stop her from doing so.
Conjuangco was at a United Negros Alliance meeting here Saturday where the candidacies of Sagay Mayor Alfredo Marañon for governor and Representative Genaro Alvarez for vice governor of Negros Occidental in 2010 were announced.
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