MANILA - Local officials of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party are getting impatient waiting for their national leaders to choose their presidential bet for the 2010 elections.  

“If you are in a party, you would rather want to know which direction the boat is taking you. Before you ride the boat, you have to know the destination. I don’t want to be floating in the sea for so long,” lamented party member, Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay.

“We have been waiting. We just don’t want to hear or read it on TV or the papers. Consultations must be done now,” echoed Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr.

Apparently, the last time the party called for a national meeting was in May to discuss the merger. The deadline for filing of the certificates of candidates for national and local posts will be on November 30, 2009.

Magsaysay said she hopes the party can make a decision soon. “They promised this September they will come up with the decision. We will wait for it. But by October 31, if nothing is final, we also have to be practical and fight for our own battle,” she said.

“All of us are trying to be patient but as time goes by, we’re also running out of options as far as the presidential candidates are concerned,” she added. “They have to make a decision sooner or later because we have to make our decisions also.”

‘Chop suey’ ticket

Lakas-Kampi vice-chairman and House Speaker Prospero Nograles said there is no cause for concern.

“Haste makes waste. We have enough time to deliberate and research and assess. We will come up with a correct political move at the proper time,” he said, when asked to comment on the impatience of local officials.

“It is normal to feel uneasy, but once a decision is reached, the administration machinery is so organized the implementation of the decision won't be very difficult.  I think that the opposition is more troubled about their unification than we are about selecting our standard-bearer,” Nograles added.

But Magsaysay warned they could lose allies to other presidential candidates who are also building local bases.  

“We cannot hold on to them for so long. If we cannot offer them answers at that this point in time, they are free to open their options to other people,” she said.

She said it was possible that they could end up just being allies at the local level, but may end up supporting different national candidates.

“In the final analysis, we will have a chop suey ticket. We have different presidential candidates. We have different vice presidential candidates. And we have different senatorial candidates,” Magsaysay said.

Play catch up

Magsaysay said they also need time to introduce the national line up to their constituents before they go full blast in their own campaigns.

“By now, we should be doing our part in helping push our presidential candidate in the grassroots level—whoever he is. If you’re going to tell us in October who our standard-bearer will be, we’ll run out of time, especially if he’s not in the top one or two of the survey,” she added.

She is also not discounting the possibility that members of the party will abandon the party if they prefer another party’s presidential bet over the administration's candidate.