Roxas invited to participate in Election Primaries

Sen. Manuel Roxas II is being asked to join a US-style popularity contest that will select the standard-bearer of a political reform movement in the 2010 presidential election.

Governors Ed Panlilio of Pampanga and Grace Padaca of Isabela are among those who are being encouraged to participate in a selection process similar to a primary, the system for choosing the presidential candidates of the Republicans and Democrats in the United States.

Roxas, Panlilio and Padaca were scheduled to meet Thursday night at the Roxas residence, called “Bahay na Puti” (White House), in Quezon City.

Harvey Keh, lead convenor of Kaya Natin!, the objective of the meeting was to invite Roxas, who also plans to run for president, to subject himself to the primary process.

He said that third-party groups had expressed interest in organizing the primary process. “They will create the process. And then we will go to different groups and see who they would want to represent them as president.

Panlilio, a Catholic priest, captured the Filipinos’ imagination in 2007 when

“What we want is to unite the reform constituency and Senator Roxas is allied with many reform groups and many of our friends. We are all working for a common cause, that is why we would want him to join the nomination process,” Keh said.

“If he comes out the winner in the nomination process, then we will support him.”