IN this country, the choice of his running mate is left to the presidential nominee, whose decision is affirmed by his party out of respect for him. If he has no party or the party holds no convention, the standard-bearer usually chooses his secondary candidate, as in the case of Mayor Jejomar Binay who was picked by Joseph Estrada, and Mar Roxas, who accepted Noynoy Aquino?s invitation to be his vice presidential partner. Manuel Villar, who is also a major player for the post in Malacañang, has finally made his choice and welcomed Loren Legarda as his running mate.

Loren has her own political platform which she says coincides with Villar?s program of government. Moreover, she is prettier than all her rivals. She now has the chance to succeed as accidental president like the successors of Manuel L. Quezon in 1944, Manuel A. Roxas in 1946, Ramon Magsaysay in 1957, and Joseph Estrada in 2001. Loren missed a similar opportunity in 2004, when her presidential partner, Fernando Poe Jr. might have won and subsequently died in office.

Gilbert ?Gibo? Teodoro, the candidate by acclamation of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD ruling party, recently chose Edu Manzano, another media personality, to replace Secretary Ronaldo Puno who resigned as the original presidential running mate. After more than three months of judicious selection, or so they say, Gibo finally picked Manzano as his second in command if they are elected.

GMA?s cohorts have reacted with jubilation, arguing that as a star celebrity, Edu is sure to draw crowds of supporters ready to vote for their handsome candidate. His lack of political experience will set him apart from the bigwig members of the party in power who will be his major political endorsers. He and his big brother Gibo will be strangers in the maudlin atmosphere of Malacañang where their questionable leader resides.

Those in the opposition are not all impressed. On the contrary, they are depressed that another figure from the entertainment world has chosen to claim the attention of the voters on serious matters affecting their interests and the future. President Estrada was no President Reagan. Even Congress has been infiltrated by figures better qualified as entertainers. One of them, in fact, does not participate in the deliberations of his colleagues but waits in the reading room nearby in case his vote is needed by his party mates on a pork barrel matter.

The expected majority of Manzano are his fans, who admire his success with the ladies as a gauge of his competence in government affairs. They see him as a minor Erap, with fewer romances, a brief unsuccessful political experience, and not much fascination with the bottle. He is younger, too, and does not seem to consider the more controversial Estrada as his model.

Actually, the Office of the Vice President in the United States is to preside at the sessions of the Senate and to vote in case of a tie, and no more. It has been described by John Nance Garner, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt?s first vice president, as no more attractive than a pitcher of warm spit. John C. Calhoun was the first vice president to resign followed by Spiro Agnew upon the filing of criminal charges against him. Harry S. Truman had to take over upon President Roosevelt?s death in 1945 and found life in the White House the most exciting office in the world.

In our Constitution, ?the Vice President may be appointed as a member of the Cabinet and such appointment requires no confirmation.? Diosdado Macapagal from the Liberal Party became vice president in 1957 but was not appointed to the Cabinet by Nacionalista President Carlos P. Garcia. What President Macapagal did was campaign all over the country and defeated Garcia?s reelection bid in 1961. When Macapagal?s own daughter became vice president in 1998, Estrada appointed her to a minor post in his Cabinet. She replaced him when he was removed in 2001, and in 2007 relieved him of his conviction for plunder and his penalty of reclusion perpetua.

All the minor offices Noli de Castro is occupying now have been given Cabinet rank, for which he requires no confirmation. As Vice President, he has chosen not to run for president and, for that matter, even just re-election. He seems to prefer the supervision of the construction of his mansion in Dasmariñas Village as his more engrossing function.

The proposed revision of the present Constitution to replace the present system with a parliamentary government under a ceremonial president does not seem to offer enough importance or incentive to a vice president, if he is to be provided for at all in the new charter. This is the reason why the present candidates for the second highest office in the land are very much against the plan to eliminate it from the government hierarchy.

The present candidates for vice president in the 2010 election are not, we might say, plastic players in the game of politics but are important people not easily disposed of or dismissed. Loren Legarda has her own following particularly among the women voters. Mar Roxas is president of the rejuvenated Liberal Party. Jejomar Binay is unbeatable in Makati. And Edu Manzano, for all his affable conformity to the ruling (?) party, has a will of his own as befits a celluloid hero. These are the people who will oppose their erasure from the revised Constitution.