MANILA, Philippines – With less than three weeks before election day, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) met and urged its members to campaign for the party’s senatorial candidates in the forthcoming elections.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Senator JV Ejercito posted a photo with party chairman emeritus Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco and NPC senators “in a dinner/meeting last night.”
Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III (left) and Senator JV Ejercito. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
“Thank you for the support and extra push my party mates!” Ejercito said in the post.
Aside from Cojuangco and Ejercito, also in the photo were Senators Francis Escudero, Loren Legarda, Grace Poe and Sherwin Gatchalian, and former Senator Lito Lapid.
Ejercito, Escudero, Legarda, Lapid and Gatchalian are party members while Poe is an adopted candidate.
Asked about the meeting with Cojuangco, Gatchalian said: “It was an endorsement and an appeal to our NPC partymates to campaign for our NPC senatorial candidates and adopted candidates.”
“The NPC candidates are Sen. Ejercito and Sen. Lapid. The NPC adopted candidate is Sen. Grace Poe,” he said in a text message.
Gatchalian, however, clarified that the NPC would still endorse other candidates.
“But these are the candidates who were just present last night,” he pointed out.
Last month, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, acting chairperson of NPC, revealed his own “Tough Ten” senatorial bets.
The list includes Ejercito, Lapid, Poe Senators Sonny Angara, Bam Aquino, Nancy Binay, Koko Pimentel, and Cynthia Villar; Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano, and former presidential aide Christopher “Bong” Go. /gsg
READ: Sotto lists “Tough Ten” Senate bets