Former Speaker Jose de Venecia is laying the groundwork for a new “rainbow coalition” that will back either Senator Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party (NP) or Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Liberal Party (LP) for the 2010 presidential race.

De Venecia said his plan to form a new rainbow coalition among opposition groups has the backing of congressmen who have decided to stay with him in the Lakas-CMD and legally dismantle its merger with the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino.

But their petition for the rejection of the political accreditation of the merged Lakas-Kampi-CMD was denied recently by the Commission on Elections.

De Venecia said the new coalition he is forming will be patterned after the pro-administration coalitions he formed in the Lower House when he was still the Speaker.

But unlike the pro-administration “rainbow” and “sunshine” coalitions, his coalition will serve the cause of the disunited opposition.

De Venecia said that both Aquino, a former House Deputy Speaker, and Villar, a one-time Speaker himself, are both “good choices” for president in the 2010 elections. But he did not discount the “competence” of Senator Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) as a good presidential candidate.

“You have a clear choice between Manny Villar and Noynoy Aquino. And from the standpoint of competence, Chiz Escudero is also competent,” the lawmaker told reporters after casting his both in the House reporters-sponsored mock election for president and vice president.

De Venecia described Villar as a “good friend” and recalled his appointment of Aquino as Deputy Speaker for Central Luzon in simple ceremonies attended by the late former President Corazon Aquino.

But he admitted that Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the “preferred” presidential bet of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, is “qualified” for the post, De Venecia’s will not endorse him, apparently because he is a bet of his political foe, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. (Ben R. Rosario)