It’s official: Isko Moreno says he’s leaving Lim for Erap

It’s official: Manila’s top political pairing has broken up, at least as far as the 2013 elections are concerned.

In a press statement, Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso Tuesday said that he would be joining Joseph Estrada’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA)—a merger between the former president’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and Vice President Jejomar Binay’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan.

His statement merely confirmed Estrada’s announcement on television on Monday that he was seriously considering running for Manila mayor next year with Domagoso as his running mate.

Domagoso, who belongs to the Nacionalista Party, said that he would be sworn in as a PMP member at 9 a.m. on May 3 at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

According to him, he was moving to the PMP because it offers a “better program of governance.”

“I believe this is happening not only in Manila, but also in other parts of the country as [the] elections draw nearer,” he said, referring to his transfer.

Domagoso added that he would continue carrying on his responsibilities as vice mayor and presiding officer of the city council, right alongside Mayor Alfredo Lim, his running mate in the 2007 and 2010 polls.

His statement was a complete turnaround from his announcement in December that he would not be running for mayor next year and that the Lim-Isko tandem remained solid.

Lim’s camp, on the other hand, said that some people had already sent out feelers to the mayor about being his running mate.

They included two actors, a mayor, a business magnate, a congressman and several councilors.

However, Lim’s chief of staff Ricardo de Guzman said that the mayor did not want to talk about the coming elections, choosing instead to remain focused on his work.