Roxas convinced Aquino will run

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II Tuesday said he is convinced that Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will run for president in 2010.

“Noynoy said he will not turn his back on the fight Cory and Ninoy started,” Roxas pointed out, but added he did not want to pre-empt Aquino’s formal announcement.

A confidant said Aquino will announce his candidacy for the presidency on Wednesday at the Club Filipino, the same venue where his late mother, Corazon Aquino, took her oath as president in 1986.

Roxas, who was one of the earliest to announce his plans to seek the presidency, last week gave up his ambition and yielded to Aquino, saying the fight for 2010 was a fight for the country and went beyond personal interest.

Aquino, who has gone on a spiritual retreat in Zamboanga City, has said he would be announcing his decision before the end of the month even as his supporters continue to gather the signatures that they hope would convince him to run.

Roxas said he is supporting Aquino for president because he sees in him the chance to unite the forces fighting for reform and good governance.

“Noynoy is very prepared. I have a high respect for him. He will not tarnish the clean name of his parents. What is important is his spirit to want to do what is right,” he said.

Members of the Aquino clan, including those serving in the Arroyo administration, will rally behind Noynoy if he decides to run, Agapito “Butz” Aquino, a former senator and congressman, said Tuesday.

The clan will be united behind Noynoy if he decides to run, Butz said.

He said he expects family members who are in the administration—like his sister, Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, another former senator who now chairs the Early Childhood Care and Development Council, and another sister, Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara, who is President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s image consultant—to also support Noynoy.

“If that is his decision I’m sure we will all rally behind him,” Butz told reporters in a chance interview at the Manila Peninsula hotel.

No rush

But he said Noynoy should not be rushed into a decision.

“He’s taking a very serious challenge. I think he should be given all the time to consider what he’s going to do,” said Butz, a younger brother of Noynoy’s father, the martyred opposition leader, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.

“He’s praying for guidance. I think that is a good sign,” he added.

Butz, who is a member of the opposition PDP-Laban party, said he also supports opposition unity talks so that they can field a common candidate for president.

“What’s important is that the people are wanting good government, an honest government, a government they can trust. I think that is what all of us want. So whatever will bring that about, we will do,” he said.

Deposed President Joseph Estrada Tuesday threatened to push through with his plans to run for President next year if the opposition fields “more than two candidates.”

“I’m sorry I cannot support anyone of them if the opposition will present more than two candidates,” he said in a speech before the Rotary Club of Makati.

‘Unity’ talks

Estrada said he was willing to join forces with Noynoy and that their camps would be holding “unity talks,” with Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay acting as intermediary, after Noynoy returns from his retreat.

Estrada later told reporters the chances of the opposition uniting around a single candidate were unlikely.

“I think the others cannot be persuaded to withdraw,” he said.

Estrada said that he intends to announce his candidacy in the first or second week October or before November “if the opposition does not unite.”

In Iloilo City, lawyer Dan Cartagena, one of the convenors of the Noynoy Aquino for President Movement-Iloilo, said the signatures gathered urging Noynoy to run are expected to reach from 2,500 to 3,000 on Wednesday.

“Noynoy needs to see and believe that the call for him to run for president is not just wishful thinking or a concept but backed by volunteers and voters willing to work for that call,” Cartagena said.