New pro-poor group believes Jinggoy best bet for vice president

Why not “Sexy” for vice president?

A newly formed group is urging detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to seek the vice presidency because it said that those reported to be running or aspiring for higher office next year had failed to discuss the issue of poverty.

Arturo Besana, a convenor of Tindig Masang Pilipino, on Saturday said the group will launch a campaign to convince Estrada to run for vice president.

“Among the presidential and vice presidential candidates, we still have to hear how they intend to address the basic right to life of the poorest in our society,” Besana said in a statement.

“The masa (common people) trust the Estradas, and Senator Jinggoy has always been protective of the interests of the poor and the labor sector,” he said.

Estrada was rumored to be eyeing the vice presidency before he was ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan in June 2014 for his alleged complicity in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

He has been detained at Camp Crame following his indictment on plunder and graft charges for allegedly taking P184 million in kickbacks from his congressional pork barrel allotments that were illegally diverted to ghost projects and organizations controlled by alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

According to scam whistleblowers who are now witnesses for the state, Estrada was known as “Sexy” in the financial records of Napoles.

Estrada was reportedly planning on being the running mate of Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is running for president under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.

Despite his incarceration on corruption charges, Estrada will ensure that “the voice of the poor (will be) heard in the national leadership,” said Besana, a retired state auditor.

The senator “has been a strong ally of the poor and the labor sector,” he added.

“The Estradas are trusted by the poor. The majority of the people identify with the Estradas as champions of the masa,” he said.

Besana lamented that the issues of the majority of Filipinos who are poor are “barely given attention” in the media.