Sotto bares initial list of Senate bets NPC will endorse in 2019

Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito’ Sotto III bared on Thursday the initial list of possible senatorial candidates the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) would be endorsing in 2019.

Sotto said the list includes incumbent senators Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Cynthia Villar, Sonny Angara, and former Senator and now Taguig Representative Pia Cayetano.

Senate President Aqulino “Koko” Pimentel III, presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, were also part of the list.

Asked about Senator JV Ejercito and his half-brother, former Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Sotto said the two are also being considered.

He said there is also a “big possibility” that Senator Bam Aquino, a member of Liberal Party, might be included in the list.

“E tutulungan din ni Ambassador Danding si Bam e,” Sotto said, referring to NPC founder, businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.

Sotto said two or three new names might be endorsed by the group but he refused to identify them.

The NPC, he said, has yet to finalize the list and those who would make it to the final list would be chosen based on the party’s “ideals, objectives, and goals.”   /muf