UNA stomps off to Cavite, dismisses drop in poll

MANILA, Philippines — The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) campaign is taking its senatorial candidates to Cavite on Thursday as the coalition attempts to court over 1.6 million voters of the province and raise their ratings after the heavy blow they received in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

UNA will try to win over Cavitenos this afternoon as the “constructive opposition” makes its way through Dasmarinas City, General Trias and Trece Martires City.

UNA secretary general and Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco said that their candidates sought to get the support of Caviteno voters, majority of whom were residing in Dasmarinas City (305,767), General Trias (109,951) and Trece Martires City (49,147).

But the senatorial candidates would steer clear of local politics in Cavite, considered a “free zone” among local politicians, he said.

Only Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay; San Juan Representative Joseph Victor Ejercito, son of former President Joseph Estrada; and former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri made it to the Magic 12 in the latest SWS survey.

The nine were from the administration-backed Team Pnoy.

UNA’s Cagayan Representative Jack Enrile, son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and Senator Gregorio Honasan, dropped out of the 10.
slid down to the 13th spot from his previous standing in the top 10, ranking 13th and 15th respectively in the latest SWS poll.

More sorties have been lined up for UNA. From March 2 to 4 candidates are expected to be in Mindanao.

But Tiangco said that their packed schedule was “not related” to the drop in their candidates’ standing in the SWS survey.

He said that UNA initially set sorties in Mindanao in March, with plans to start in Cagayan de Oro and head on over to Bukidnon and Iligan.

But Zubiri’s request for a March 2 sortie in Bukidnon prompted the coalition to revise the initial schedule to accommodate the former senator’s request.

“As early as January the CDO-Bukidnon-Iligan leg has been set because of the specific date of March 2 that Sen Migs requested. Just had to revise it to Bukidnon-CDO-iligan because of the advance team,” he said.