It’s official: UNA will be Binay’s party in 2016
MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay has a new political party, whose standard he will carry in running for Malacañang in 2016.
The new party is called United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), named after the coalition cobbled together by the opposition in 2010.
Founding meeting of 500
The party hopes to file for Commission on Elections (Comelec) accreditation on Friday, according to Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, who was elected interim chair and president of UNA during the first organizational meeting on Wednesday.
And since it would take two to three months for the accreditation process, Tiangco said the party may be launched in December at the earliest.
More than 500 founding members met at Century Park Hotel on Wednesday to approve the bylaws and articles of the party.
Binay attended the organizational meeting and thanked his supporters.
Tiangco said that because the Vice President was busy at his job, he would stand as head of the party for the meantime so he could attend to the requirements needed for the party’s accreditation.
But once the party is accredited, he said he would move for the election of Binay as party chair and president.
“The Vice President does not want to be distracted from his official function,” Tiangco said.
Tiangco named the other interim party officials as Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II, vice president; JV Bautista, secretary general; and former Finance Secretary Gary Teves, treasurer.
Are you opposition?
Asked by reporters if Malacañang felt threatened by the formation of the new opposition party, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda answered: “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.”
Lacierda refused to comment about the formation of UNA at first, but later suggested that UNA should decide whether it is an opposition party.
“Let them state for the record, are they for the administration or are they for the opposition [instead of making us speculate on their nature],” Lacierda said.
He explained that being members of a political party different from President Aquino’s Liberal Party does not make politicians oppositionists.
To coalesce with PMP
“You’ve got NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition), you’ve got NUP (National Unity Party)—are they [opposition]? You know, it depends on how they will describe themselves. From us to [say, ‘Are they opposition or not?’] They [should] tell the public what kind of party they are, instead of us,” Lacierda said.
Tiangco said UNA would push for economic gains to trickle down to the poor, more jobs and livelihood, and more social services for the people.
He said the party intended to coalesce with the party of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, for the 2016 elections.
Binay was supposed to launch his political party on June 12, but postponed it because he did not think it was a good time to talk about politics when the nation was reeling from the pork barrel scandal.
Binay’s spokesman, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, shrugged off the statement of ralliers who protested the party meeting that aligning with the Vice President for 2016 would be a “kiss of death.”
“I don’t think so. We just got our numbers. We are very confident that the Vice President maintains his lead. The Vice President maintains the trust of the people,” Remulla said.
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