Palace scoffs at Binay’s launching of UNA as political party

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang does not see Vice President Jejomar Binay’s conversion of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) from an alliance into a political party as a threat to President Benigno Aquino III.

“Why will we be threatened? We’re focused on governance right now. I mean, some people would like to talk about 2016 but, we’re focused on governance. We still have 640-plus days left. We’ve got so much work to do. We’ve got so much reforms that we need to advance,” said Presidential Secretary Edwin Lacierda in a briefing.

Although he initially refused to make a comment on Binay’s political moves, Lacierda suggested that UNA declare if it was an opposition party or not.

“Let them state for the record, are they for the administration or are they for the opposition, not for us to surmise or speculate the nature of their political party,” said Lacierda.

Lacierda said that being a member of a political party different from the President’s Liberal Party would not make one a member of the opposition.

“You’ve got NPC (Nationalist Peoples Coalition), you’ve got NUP (National Unity Party), are they (opposition)? You know, it depends on how they will describe themselves. Far from us to comment if they an opposition or not. They would have to tell the public what kind of a party they are, instead of us,” said Lacierda.