Reelectionist Sen. Gregorio Honasan FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—With only three United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) candidates cracking the Magic 12, will it now be the end of the road for Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate President?
Not so fast, said Sen. Gregorio Honasan of UNA, a longtime ally of Enrile now hanging on to the 12th and final slot in the senatorial race.
Based on the partial and unofficial results, he said the 89-year-old Enrile could still have a solid seven-member bloc in the 16th Congress. He said the group could provide the crucial “swing vote” during the selection of the next chamber leader.
“It’s a strong group. If either side comes up with a clear choice, then no problem. But if not, they will have to talk to us and we could provide the swing vote,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday.
Besides Enrile, Honasan said the bloc would include himself and incumbent Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Vicente Sotto III and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.
Rep. JV Ejercito and Nancy Binay, the two other UNA candidates currently in the winning circle, would likely join the Enrile bloc, he said. Enrile’s son Jack was at 15th place as of Tuesday.
Honasan recalled the 2010 race for the Senate presidency wherein Enrile emerged as a “compromise” candidate. He ended up keeping the post in the 15th Congress after the groups of administration Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Sen. Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party failed to gather enough votes.
Nancy Binay, the highest-ranking UNA senatorial candidate in the Magic 12 so far, said on Tuesday that “the alliances in the Senate could still change.”
“Note that there was only one Liberal Party candidate (in the Magic 12),” she said in a press conference, referring to President Aquino’s cousin, Bam Aquino.
Of the nine administration candidates in the winners’ circle, three are from NP (Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes, Cynthia Villar), one from LDP (Sonny Angara), one from PDP-Laban (Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III), one from the Nationalist People’s Coalition (Loren Legarda), and two are independent (Grace Poe and Francis Escudero).
Honasan said the 9-3 advantage of Team PNoy in the senatorial race would not necessarily translate to an Aquino Senate.
“Historically, the Senate has been independent,” he said. “The configuration could still change. We don’t know yet how the dynamics in the 16th Congress would play out.”
Honasan said that alliances forged during elections would not necessarily hold later on, owing to the absence of a political party system.
“So just because the administration got the upper hand in the election does not mean they will get to control the Senate,” he said.
The Team PNoy ticket was built on the strength of separate alliances LP had forged with NP and NPC.