Will Joseph Estrada back Binay? It goes without saying, says VP

Vice President Jejomar Binay and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Vice President Jejomar Binay believes former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada will support his presidential bid. It goes without saying, he said.

Binay expressed this on Monday night after Estrada’s nephew, disqualified Laguna Gov. ER Ejercito, took his oath before Binay as new member of his party, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in Calamba City, Laguna.

Binay said he believed that Ejercito would be able to return as governor of Laguna as the latter was beloved by his constituents and that he has achieved a lot in making the Laguna No. 1 among other provinces.

Ejercito was forced to step down in May last year after the Commission on Elections disqualified him for campaign overspending in the 2010 elections.

Asked whether he thinks Estrada will support his presidential bid, he said he believed the latter will do.

“We did not have any differences. We are together, I owe him because he included me as his vice president in 2010,” Binay said of Estrada, in a transcript released by his office to the media on Tuesday.

The Vice President said though he had no talks with Estrada on this matter.

“Let’s just say it goes without saying,” Binay added.

Both Estrada and his son Sen. JV Ejercito had previously said that the family would be torn on whom they will support if both Binay and Sen. Grace Poe will run for president.

The Estrada family is close to Poe’s family, her father being the late action king Fernando Poe Jr., whom the elder Estrada supported when the latter ran and lost his presidential bid in 2004.

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