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.