UNA to swear in local bets in Iloilo

Vice President and HUDCC chairman Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 900 candidates for the local elections in Iloilo would be taking their oath as new members of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), as the coalition gears up for the 2013 polls.

In an announcement Friday, Vice President Jejomar Binay said that he would be swearing in the new members at the Iloilo Grand Hotel Saturday.

Ferjenel Biron, Iloilo 4th district representative, would be among the local candidates who would join the oath-taking ceremony. Biron would also serve as the UNA provincial chair.

UNA is the new coalition formed between Binay’s PDP-Laban and former President Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino.

Binay, former President Joseph Estrada, and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile comprise UNA’s executive committee.

Estrada and Enrile, along with UNA senatorial bets former Senators Ernesto Maceda and Richard Gordon, and Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile, Jr., were also expected to attend the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Binay had also said that UNA has finalized its senatorial slate and would be filing their certificates of candidacies on October 1, 1 p.m.

Aside from Maceda, Gordon, and Enrile, Jr, among those who had been reported to be included in the slate were Senators Gregorio Honasan, San Juan Representative JV Ejercito, former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos’ Magsaysay and businessman Joey de Venecia.

On Thursday, Binay said that UNA has decided to include Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Margarita Tingting Cojuangco in its senatorial slate.

Binay and Estrada had also said that Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairman Grace Poe Llamanzares was already an “adopted candidate.”