Noynoy running for President; 5 Traditional Oppositionists gunning for top spot

Now, the political scene is getting clearer by the day.

The traditional oppositionists, and that includes the Liberal Party with some reformist groups, have at least five candidates for the presidency.

For the Liberal side, Noynoy Aquino has already announced his candidacy, while from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), Senator Chiz Escudero. Former ambassador Ernie Maceda has said that former president Joseph Estrada is running under the UNO party while the Nacionalista Party is fielding Senator Manny Villar.

On the administration side, its a toss up between Vice President Noli de Castro, who will announce his candidacy on September 15 and Defense secretary Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro. De Castro is rumoured to have agreed to be Villar's running mate, which then opens the door for Teodoro. Eventually, it could be a Teodoro-Puno tandem. However, should De Castro, indeed runs under the administration banner, he could probably team up with Puno, which then would lead to a break up of the Lakas-KAMPI CMD coalition.

Recently, 49 governors have thrown their support behind Teodoro, of which about half of them do exert a great influence in their respective areas. Teodoro remains a dark horse in the presidential derby because he has the machinery to actually launch an independent presidential campaign. If Teodoro does indeed, break away from the Lakas-KAMPI CMD merger, it could open the possibility of Lakas aligned with De Venecia Jr. to shift their support from the administration party-led KAMPI to Noynoy's political party.

As what we wrote a few months ago, a five to six man run for the presidency would possibly lead to an administration win. Remember that Mrs. Arroyo still enjoys a 20% mass base support and with majority of local government officials aligned with the administration moving for the admin-backed candidate, this could lead to a decisive win.