Pacquiao promises Binay: ‘I won’t leave you, Vice’

Vice President Jejomar Binay (left) and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Vice President Jejomar Binay belied reports that Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao will leave the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and join the Liberal Party for the 2016 elections.

In an interview, Binay said that Pacquiao has assured him that he will stay in the opposition party.

“Sasabihin ko po sa inyo na kinabukasan nang lumabas sa pahayagan ‘yong intrigang ‘yon, kausap ko po mismo si [Representative] Manny Pacquiao at ang sinabi n’ya, ‘Wala pong iwanan. ‘Di ko po kayo iiwanan. Sama-sama po tayo, Vice,'” Binay told reporters during his visit in Cavite City on Thursday.

(A day after the issue was published in the paper, I talked to Manny Pacquiao and he said “I won’t leave you, Vice. We will be in this together.”)

He said that the issue of Pacquiao leaving Una seeks to divide the party.

“Kasama lang po ‘yan sa mga pang-iintriga [para] kami ay magkahati-hati na magkakasama,” the vice president said.

(The issue is part of sowing division in the party.)

Yacap party-list Rep. Carol Jayne Lopez on Wednesday said that the camp of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is wooing Pacquiao to jump ship.

Lopez said that if Pacquiao decides to join LP, he will be part of the administration’s senatorial slate.

Pacquiao has attended the launch of Una as a political party last July 1.

The Filipino boxing champion was first allied with the Nacionalista Party, then he switched to LP, and then to Binay’s Una.