Pinoy Election 2010

BACOLOD CITY—The youngest daughter of business tycoon and political kingmaker Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. is supporting the presidential candidacy of her cousin Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and the vice presidential bid of his running mate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.

Lisa Cojuangco-Cruz said she would not only support the “Noy-Mar ticket” as a personal decision but would also openly campaign for the Liberal Party tandem.

“I am not a politician,” she said. “But as a Filipino I am making a choice and the choice for May 10 is Noy-Mar,” she told the Inquirer in an e-mail on Monday.

Cojuangco-Cruz said she believed that the Aquino-Roxas tandem “is our best hope for a better Philippines.”

‘Honest government’

“I am not one to give you a complicated analysis of things. All we need is an honest, decent government and our hope for that rests on Noynoy and Mar,” Cruz said.

She said she is campaigning in Negros Occidental, where her family owns farms and where she has spent many vacations, and in Iloilo, where she has also lived.

She said she is hitting the campaign trail on Thursday in Iloilo where she will be joining Kris, Aquino’s celebrity sister.

Lupus patient

Cruz, a lupus erythematosus patient, is known for her advocacy of raising awareness of the disease.

Diagnosed with the disease more than a decade ago, she currently spearheads The LUiSA Project of the Philippine Rheumatology Educational Trust Foundation. LUiSA stands for Lupus Inspired Advocacy.

Now based in Manila, Cojuangco-Cruz described Noynoy as more than just a cousin: They share the same birthday and were born just seven hours apart on Feb. 8, 1960.

Noynoy’s father, the martyred Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was also her godfather, she said.

Lisa is married to Dr. Nick Cruz, one of the country’s top cardiologists who is the director of the Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.

Mum on ‘Gibo’

Cojuangco-Cruz, however, was tightlipped on what she thought of her other cousin, Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., the standard-bearer of the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Teodoro, the son of Danding’s younger sister Merceditas, had a falling out with Danding after the former bolted the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the party founded by Danding, in favor of Lakas-Kampi.

Danding has yet to announce whom he will support in the May presidential election. His wife Gretchen Oppen-Cojuangco, however, earlier said she would support “anybody but Gibo.”

Gretchen has been very vocal against Teodoro and about how Gibo had purportedly “betrayed” his uncle by leaving the NPC without first talking to Danding about it.

She also claimed that Danding had great plans for Teodoro but that the latter “left without even a word of goodbye.”

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer