STANDING SOLID: There is a bit of irony in what is happening to Vice President Noli de Castro, a conceded front-runner if presidential elections would be held in 2010.

As a top-rated broadcaster thrust into politics, De Castro is among the coyest about his plans for 2010. “Magtrabaho na lang tayo, malayo pa yan.” he keeps saying when asked if he is running. (“Let’s just work, the elections are still far off.”)

But it seems his evading the question has not calmed the roiled political waters carrying him and a slew of aspirants nearer to the electoral falls. Although an administration team player, he has been asked to consider joining the opposition.

His standing is solid despite the fact that he is not as definite nor as clear about his plans as, say, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada. Neither is he as aggressive in the tuning-up of his political machinery as, say, senators Mar Roxas II and Manuel Villar.

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VIABLE BET: A showbizzy twist is his being paired off with Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos, who the match-makers want to develop as De Castro’s vice presidential partner in case he makes a go for the presidency.

The pairing may not add to the substance of presidential debate, but it does stir up excitement for the masses who take to elections not as solemn exercises of suffrage but as popularity contests.

With or without Ate Vi running with him, however, De Castro is definitely a contender to reckon with.

In fact, at this point, De Castro is the only viable presidential candidate in the administration stable.

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HIGH MARK: This is again ironic because while De Castro grants only that he is “open” to possibly running, even his potential rivals concede that he will be a formidable opponent in a national election.

The most recent survey of the Social Weather Stations where De Castro hit a 41 percent approval rating (in stark contrast to the negative grade of his President) only serves to reinforce such perception. In previous surveys, he consistently scored very high, too.

His performance has registered high in the public mind, because despite his having  been given that “suicide assignment” of clearing a wide corridor on both sides of the railroad tracks choked with squatters, he did it.

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MIRACLE MAN: Lesser men would have collapsed undertaking the demolition of squatter dwellings in a virtual “no man’s land” and bodily moving entire communities without a scratch.

A case in point is Osmena Avenue cutting through Manila, Makati and Pasay. Suddenly the railroad tracks were clear of eyesores and criminal lairs, prompting regular passersby to ask how anybody could have performed that miracle.

In the Northrail and the Rail Linkage Resettlement projects, De Castro turned the potentially explosive challenge into an opportunity to help the poor and demonstrate the government’s good faith in looking after the homeless.

Through the projects, the government made available more livable homes and more secure tenure to more than 15,000 families. More than 40,000 families were properly settled in new communities or were assisted in returning to their provinces.

Last year alone, housing agencies relocated some 10,000 families who used to live along the rail tracks in Manila, Taguig and Muntinlupa.

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OOPS: Detractors of Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio actually need the signatures of only a minimum of 98,703 voters (not 113,163) to start any move to recall the priest-turned-politician who has stumbled into political roadblocks from the capitolio to the outlying towns.

In a lunch meeting Tuesday, election lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal called my attention to my reporting in my last Postscript that since Pampanga has 1,131,627 registered voters, only 113,163 voters’ signatures are needed.

(Under the amended Local Government Code, in provinces with at least 300,000 registered voters, a recall of the governor can be initiated after his one year in office by any voter with the support of at least 10 percent of the registered voters.)

Although I mentioned that voters of Angeles City do not participate in the election of a governor, I failed to subtract their number from the total provincial registry. When they are removed, there would be only 987,023 registered voters qualified to sign a recall.

Well, that should make it even easier for Panlilio’s opponents to try to unseat him via a recall.

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PRESUMED WINNER: But Macalintal sprung another legal surprise. He told me in an email:

“The reported plans to recall Governor Panlilio will not prosper because of the election protest filed by Lilia Pineda which is pending with the Commission on Elections. It will result to political absurdity if a recall is conducted with the pendency of the protest.

“What will happen to the recall process or to the one elected in the recall election if the protest is finally decided in favor of Pineda?

“Clearly, the pendency of the election protest of Pineda is a legal obstacle or legal impediment to any move or plan to institute recall proceedings against Panlilio.

“Panlilio is merely a ‘presumptive winner’ or ‘apparent winner.’ Only the Comelec, by resolving the protest, could make the final determination if he is indeed the ‘actual’ winner.

“The election protest of Pineda has still a long way to go. The issue has to be decided by the Comelec en banc whose decision could still be questioned before the Supreme Court.”

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