Senator Loren Legarda INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Senator Loren Legarda is admittedly giddy that she’s being pursued by two major political coalitions to be part of their senatorial slate in 2013.
A few weeks before the filing of certificates of candidacies, Legarda continues to play coy as to whether she’d run under the administration coalition led by President Benigno Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP) or under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) recently formed under the leadership of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Although the LP has communicated with Legarda’s party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the senator said it would still be up to her to decide which step to take.
“The NPC has given me the freehand to select which group to join in consultation with them. Of course, I will take into consideration whatever talks are ongoing with the NPC,” Legarda said.
“They said they will always support the NPC candidates. Remember, there are two of us—Cagayan Representative Jack Enrile and myself—who are running for senator. They will support us wherever we wish to go,” she added.
The reelectionist senator called UNA her “home” since 2004 when she ran for vice president alongside her standard-bearer, the late Fernando Poe Jr.
In contrast, Legarda said there was no formal invitation to be part of the LP coalition.
“Kilig pala yun (The news made me giddy),” Legarda quipped when asked how it feels to be wooed by the two influential groups.
The LP-led coalition is allied with the Nacionalista Party (NP) of Senator Manuel Villar and the NPC of Legarda.
The UNA, on the other hand, is composed of Binay’s PDP-Laban and former President Joseph Estrada’s Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino.
No less than President Aquino announced the LP’s coalition with the NP and the NPC weeks after Binay and Estrada’s parties came together.
“It’s the NPC and LP party officials who are talking. I am not part of the talks. I would like to reiterate that I am running for my last and final term in 2013, still under NPC,” Legarda said.
Legarda confirmed the invitation to be a guest candidate of UNA. On LP’s reported invitation, she said she just “read it in the papers.”
“I respect the ongoing talks of the NPC and the Liberal Party. I welcome whatever invitations there are or there will be,” Legarda said.