MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE 1) - The camp of Lakas-Kampi vice-presidential candidate Edu Manzano decried Wednesday the lack of support from the political party amid reports that the actor-host is backing out of the race.

Campaign manager Reli German said Manzano is bent on pursuing his vice-presidential bid despite the party's failure to meet the requirements needed to run a successful national campaign.

"Edu is the only person running for national office who still does not have a commercial on television. This just shows the lack of support that he has been getting. This does not mean that Edu has not been trying. He has gone all over the country campaigning," German said, adding that Manzano is currently  in Hong Kong to campaign before overseas Filipino communities.

He added: "No, he's not going to back out at least as of today. The situation is far from ideal. As of today, Edu wil push on but we don't know. This can't go on until the end of the campaign."

German said that when Manzano was invited to become Lakas-Kampi's vice-presidential's bet, he was promised full support to his requirements for the campaign including "commercials, posters, handouts and other forms of advertising."

He said lack of advertising is the main reason why Manzano is faring poorly in the latest national surveys, which showed him placing fifth in the vice-presidential race. He said that with enough advertising, he expects Manzano to pull even with the leading vice-presidential candidates.

"I think we still have enough time because it's 60 days. With the kind of support that we would get hopefully from the local level of Lakas-Kampi candidates, I think that should be enough to put us on equal footing with the survey leaders right now. But something has to be done right away. We can't go on this way," he said.

Lakas-Kampi spokesman Mike Toledo, meanwhile, admitted that lack of funding has affected not just Manzano's campaign but the campaign of their standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro.

"Well, just because it is the ruling party doesn't mean that funds will be easy. We are still waiting. There will be some delays but whent i comes, it will be put to proper use," he said.

He said, however, that Teodoro and Manzano remain committed to pursuing their respective national bids.