Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. said Tuesday that agricultural development would be his major priority to ensure the country’s food security and spur its economic development, even as he remained confident in the ruling party’s capacity to boost his candidacy, on the start of the campaign for the May 10 presidential elections.

At the first presidential debate organized by the Philippine Daily Inquirer at the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus, Teodoro said he would launch a program to modernize agriculture to boost food security. Both are vital links in the national effort to push the country’s economic development, he said.

Teodoro also identified other priority areas in quick succession, among them modernizing the ship-building industry and the tourism sector because of their vast potential to bring into the country “massive amounts of dollars.”

Teodoro said he favored increased spending for the police and military particularly in the recruitment of more men and acquisition of new equipment both of which he said are “keys to lasting peace and order.”

Asked by a representative of pro-indigenous group about the most secluded place he has visited, Teodoro identified an area in Abra called Salapadan, home of the indigenous Tinguian.

The 1989 Bar topnotcher, the youths’ runaway choice for president in most of the nation’s college campuses, waxed eloquence in the debate and even managed to spice it up with witty quips and repartee.

When asked to rank her mother-in-law, President Arroyo, and his uncle and business tycoon Danding Cojuangco, Teodoro ranked his mother-in-law as number one, saying that both Arroyo and Cojuangco were equal.