It may not really be the ultimate study in political development, still the slow but consistent trend in the rise of Gilberto ‘Guibo’ Teodoro as a potential standard bearer of the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD is attracting widespread speculations.

And this, despite his low ratings in various political surveys.

This seeming ambiguity became more glaring when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself the other day hinted interest on learning that a number of provincial governors have crossed party lines to endorse him for next year’s presidential elections.

President Arroyo’s statement expressing interest in such move by the provincial leaders has spawned talks that she may be having second thoughts about Noli de Castro being considered as the administration candidate for the 2010 presidential polls.

The president may be remembered having commented in public that De Castro has “the qualities of a good president,” which some party leaders took to mean a presidential anointment of the vice president.

But De Castro, while saying he was grateful for the president’s favorable estimation of him has been overly cautious doing anything definite about his 2010 plans.

Even so, Lakas-Kampi-CMD partisans continue to woo him mainly because of his consistent high ratings in the surveys while Teodoro remains at the tail-end of all popularity surveys of presidential aspirants.

But no matter.

Malacañang officials are confident that with the endorsement of the provincial chief executives, Teodoro is in good stead considering that two-thirds of the governors in the country are coalesced with the administration.

Gabriel Claudio, party secretary-general who is also the President’s chief political adviser, is certain the governors’ endorsement of Teodoro “would have to be given significant weight in the party’s decision-making process.”

Even Lakas-Kampi-CMD-designated head Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita is ecstatic about the development which he called “positive” that could very well influence the party and, naturally, the President in the final selection of the administration standard bearer.

Expectedly, Gibo is buoyed up by the governors’ gesture, particularly that it was given spontaneously and without equivocations.

“It’s a breath of fresh air,” he reacted in thankful acknowledgment, coming as it did from the country’s grassroots leaders. With the endorsement, he said, he felt this early a tremendous boost in his quest for the presidency.

The feeling, it appears, stems from the awareness of the governors’ belief in his cause and that, according to Teodoro, matters a lot in his campaign for change in the country’s political milieu.

That the governors, whose collective leadership is the source of national empowerment and authority, believe in one’s candidacy, certainly is compelling – and eodoro obviously is touched by it.

Today’s new approach to nomination by political parties may well work for Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as demonstrated by the action taken by the provincial governors and the favorable responses it generated within the Lakas-Kampi-CMD leadership.

Whatever such evolving process of nomination is called, it is already stimulating popular interest among party members and the general public.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)