Escudero tells UNA: ‘Leave me alone’

Senator Francis Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero   on  Tuesday called on  the  United  Nationalist Alliance  (UNA) to  leave  him  alone, saying  he was  at a “loss”  why he was being singled  out by  the group.

“I still consider him a friend and in fact I am surprised and at a loss why I am being singled out by UNA. Hindi pa ba sapat na nilaglag nila ako? (Is it not enough that they dropped me [from the Senate slate]?)”  Escudero   said in a text message, referring to former  President  Joseph  Estrada.

He issued the statements when sought to react to Senator Loren Legada’s  disclosure that  Estrada called to assure her that they remained  friends despite UNA’s decision to drop her  as guest candidate.

Aside from Legarda,  the two other  adopted  candidates dropped from the  UNA  senatorial ticket were  Escudero and former MTRCB chairperson  Grace Poe-Llamanzares.

But Escudero suspected that UNA had only wanted to get rid of him, not Legarda and Poe-Llamanzares.

“Mula’t mula naman mukhang ako lang naman yata talaga ang gusto nilang tanggalin at hindi naman talaga sina Loren  at  Grace (Eversince it seemed like it was only me that they really wanted to remove and not Loren and Grace really),” he said.

And the senator said he did not know why he was being singled out.

“Sana naman tigilan na nila ako mag focus na lang sila at ako sa kanya-kanyang kampanya (I hope they would stop so we could focus instead on individual campaigning),” Escudero added.