Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro launches on Friday his presidential bid by formally taking his oath as member of the ruling Lakas-Kampi- CMD and join its search for the party’s standard bearer in 2010.

Describing Teodoro as a “prized political jewel of the season,” Senator Miguel Zubiri, party vice president for Mindanao, said at least 200 party faithful, including top officials of the country’s most dominant party, will be present to welcome the defense chief who will take his oath at the Lakas-Kampi-CMD headquarters in Mandaluyong City.

Teodoro will challenge the presidential bids of party old-timers Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Vice President Noli de Castro has also been strongly considered as another possible 2010 standard bearer but his continued “hard-toget” stance has been widely criticized by party stalwarts.

“Noli de Castro doesn’t bother us. We don’t mind if he is No. 1 or No. 9 the surveys, he is not a member of the party,” House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor told reporters during the Usaping Balita News Forum in Quezon City.

Defensor, Lakas-Kampi CMD chairman for Region VI, said the party considers “competence, intelligence, integrity and ability to restore people’s faith and trust in government” as among the qualifications of the candidate who will represent the party in 2010.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said Teodoro’s decision to become a party member gives him an “advantage” in the selection process.

“He has an inside track in the selection process because he is already part of the political party. However, it doesn’t mean the party will shut its doors against its allies,” Nograles told the media forum at Serye Café in Quezon City.

The House leader added there is a possibility the party will endorse a non-party member as its 2010 presidential bet if Lakas-Kampi-CMD cannot find a viable and strong candidate in its roster of members.

Zubiri said Teodoro has a very strong chance of getting the party nomination.

He noted that the party newcomer has generated so much excitement—and raised higher expectations—about the future of the party and the new direction for the country politics.

“The party sees the country’s youth in him—all the idealism, audacity and can-do attitude needed to spark the country to a new plateau of economic growth and stability,” Zubiri said.

“He is the face of new politics that can confidently take over the country’s leadership,” Zubiri added.

After his oath-taking, Teordoro has to win the Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential nomination—a tall order if the race were to develop as a two-man contest between him and Vice-President Noli de Castro, another party outsider bidding to join the ruling powerhouse.

Teodoro’s appeal to the party faithful, however, is universal. He is welcomed heartily by local officials, municipal and city mayors, governors and congressmen and the senior party leadership.

“He has charmed everyone with his intelligence, his knowledge of administration and governance, and his youthfulness,” Zubiri said.

These are attributes the young generation of the party is convinced will carry Lakas-Kampi-CMD to victory in the 2010 elections, he said.

Teodoro joins a party that just completed a a merger of Lakas CMD and Kampi, two of the most powerful, biggest and most organized political parties in the country with a nationwide machine of more than five million members.

Add to that the Lakas-Kampi-CMD war chest, and the party—all things being equal—enjoys an enormous advantage over the splintered political opposition.

Whoever the Lakas-Kampi-CMD bet will be, it is certain that he faces a divided opposition that will field two or perhaps three candidates.

That should give the ruling party more than an even chance to win the May 2010 elections and build on the legacy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita, the party’s national president will administer the oath of membership, in the presence of Lakas-Kampi-CMD vice chairmen Nograles and DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno.