A popular Philippine senator added political muscle to movie actor Fernando Poe Jr's campaign against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday by signing on as his running mate for May elections.
Loren Legarda, a charismatic broadcaster who championed environmental causes after sweeping into the Senate with the largest number of votes in 1998, was among several close Arroyo allies to jump ship and seek higher office.
She brings experience and credibility to the movie icon's campaign.
"I accept, with great honour, the nomination to run for vice president under the banner of the united opposition parties," she told a news conference.
Poe, who leads some opinion polls despite having no political experience, is supported by three major opposition parties, including that of his best friend, former film star and deposed president Joseph Estrada.
Another opposition bloc backs Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief under Estrada who accuses Arroyo's husband of salting away millions of dollars in campaign funds.
Arroyo, an economist who rose from vice president when Estrada was chased from office, has seen only modest success from her fiscal and anti-graft reforms during two years in office. The nation of 82 million faces huge debts, a weak peso, corruption, poverty and security threats.
Legarda praised Poe, a high school dropout known as the John Wayne of the Philippines, for "dignity, humility and compassion" and said they shared four basic platforms - job creation, law and order, education and boosting farm output.
"He told me that our team will be campaigning on the theme of transparency and governance," said Legarda, who will have to stop hosting a weekend current affairs show until after the election.
Rodolfo Reyes, a spokesman for the pro-Poe coalition, said it took some time to form the ticket with Legarda due to perceived resistance against a senator who played a role in the ouster of Estrada during million-strong street marches in January 2001.
In a country where personalities dominate election campaigns, the Poe-Legarda team emerged three days after Senator Noli de Castro, another well-known newsreader who ranks high in opinion polls, accepted Arroyo's offer to be her running mate.
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