Alan Cayetano: Row on 3 guest bets a waste of time

Senate Alan Cayetano. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The bickering over the three common candidates of Team PNoy and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) is useless and “unproductive,” according to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.

“It’s a waste of time to talk about the issue which party the three candidates would choose,” Cayetano told reporters in Filipino when asked if Team PNoy stands to gain if UNA drops reelectionist senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, and former MTRCB chief Grace Poe-Llamanzares from their lineup.

UNA secretary general Tobias Tiangco had stated that the three guest candidates should make a firm commitment to UNA and not leave them “hanging.”

Legarda, Escudero and Poe are being carried by both coalitions for the 2013 midterm elections. The three however were not able to show up at the proclamation rally of UNA held recently in Cebu. Legarda and Poe had sent proxies for them but Escudero had not.

Tiangco had urged the three to make up their minds if they want to campaign only with the Liberal Party coalition headed by President Benigno Aquino III.

Cayetano, who is running under Team PNoy, had said that the issue on which group the guests will be campaigning with doesn’t really matter because it’s each candidate’s platform that really counts.