2 team-ups taking shape

Vice President Jejomar Binay with Sen. Gringo Honasan during the official launch of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), touted to be the main opposition party in the 2016 elections, at the Makati Coliseum, wednesday. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

AND BinGo it is.

Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan has made up his mind—he is running for Vice President alongside Vice President Jejomar Binay of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), two reliable sources said Sunday.

And living up to their party’s name—the acronym UNA means “first” in English—Binay and Honasan are filing their certificates of candidacy at the central office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Intramuros, Manila, at 8 a.m. Monday, the first day of the five-day registration for candidates in next year’s national elections.

It took only days to form the BinGo team, a welcome relief for UNA after months of rejections from politicians wary of being associated with Binay, who is accused of corruption and plunder in the Office of the Ombudsman in cases involving alleged kickbacks from infrastructure projects when he was mayor of Makati City.

Another team that is shaping up but is expected to show up at the Comelec toward the end of the registration period this week is that of Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

Duterte, if he is running for President, is not going to make an announcement—he will just walk into the Comelec office and file his COC.

He has said that if he will run for President, he will pick Cayetano for his running mate.

No confirmation

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, UNA president, would not confirm that Honasan had agreed to run with Binay.

He dodged questions about it Sunday, saying “we will find out” on Monday.

But a source privy to the goings-on in the party told the Inquirer that the team-up between Binay and Honasan had been a “done deal” since last week.

Another source said BinGo was formed after Honasan’s family “acquiesced” to the senator running for a higher office.

“Being the vice president of UNA, his main task is to organize the party. How can he be effective in organizing the party if he cannot accept the draft of the party? And this is what he tried to make his family understand,” the source said.

The source said Binay and Honasan would file their COCs together today.

The two sources requested anonymity, as they had no authorization to speak about the matter.

Also expected to file their COCs later this week are the teams of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero, and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo of the ruling Liberal Party (LP).

‘Just watch for it’

Duterte, who has admitted being in talks with the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), told reporters in Davao City late on Friday that his supporters should just wait for his action in the coming days.

“If I show my face at the Comelec on the 15th, I will be filing my certificate [of candidacy] for the presidency,” Duterte said.

Commenting on talk that a proxy would file the COC for him, Duterte said: “Proxy, proxy, I don’t do that.”

His supporters, he said, should “just watch out for it.”

Speculation about Duterte’s run for the presidency heated up after the mayor spoke about a “dream team” for the Senate composed of Senators Sergio Osmeña III and Panfilo Lacson, Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, ACT-CIS Rep. Samuel Pagdilao, Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar, Manila Vice Mayor Francisco Dumagaso, also known as Isko Moreno, and former Bukidnon Rep. Miguel Zubiri.

Lacson is already on the LP senatorial slate, where the 12th and last slot, according to a reliable source, is reserved for Pacquiao.

‘Dream team’

Duterte said the inclusion of Zubiri in the “dream team” would be referred to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, the PDP-Laban president, as Pimentel and Zubiri had been bitter political rivals.

Zubiri took a seat in the Senate after the 2007 midterm elections, but quit in 2011 when it became clear in the recount that he benefited from fraud perpetrated by the henchmen of the Arroyo administration in Mindanao. Pimentel, who had protested his loss to Zubiri, claimed the seat vacated by Zubiri.

Pimentel said he was more than 90-percent sure that Duterte would run for President.

“In the first place, he has no longer repeated his statement that he is not running for President and he is now repeatedly saying he hears the clamor of the people,” Pimentel said in an interview on Radyo Inquirer Sunday.

Pimentel said he would talk to Duterte before Oct. 15, the date mentioned by Duterte.

“[There is no other reason for his going to the Comelec than filing] his certificate of candidacy for President,” Pimentel said.

Mass in Tondo

He said he and other PDP-Laban members would be at Duterte’s side at the Comelec on Oct. 15.

On the eve of the filing of COCs, Binay went to Mass at the Santo Niño de Tondo Parish Church in Manila.

He declined to tell reporters whether Honasan was indeed his running mate.

“Just wait until the filing of COCs on Monday,” he said, adding there would be “no more excitement” if he disclosed the identity of his running mate.

Asked what he prayed for, Binay said he gave thanks to God for helping his family, special friends and his son, Junjun.

Junjun Binay, the mayor of Makati City, was ordered dismissed and perpetually disqualified from holding public office by the Ombudsman on Friday for dishonesty in service in a case involving alleged overpricing in the construction of Makati City Hall Building II.

Before he files his COC today, the Vice President is expected to have breakfast with family and friends in Intramuros. Then all of them will walk to the Comelec building at 8 a.m., UNA spokesperson Mon Ilagan said.

It was not clear whether Junjun Binay would be there.

In a radio interview Sunday, Sen. Nancy Binay said her father would be the first in the family to file a COC.

Mayor Binay running

Her brother, despite the Ombudsman’s order, will file his COC within the week, she said.

Senator Binay said the candidates on the UNA senatorial slate would file their COCs within the week.

Asked on the possibility that her sister, Makati City Rep. Abigail Binay, would run for mayor instead of her brother, Senator Binay said this was one of the things still being studied in case her brother could not run.

Asked about the Binay camp’s concern that the Vice President may also be ordered arrested in connection with the plunder complaint against him in the Office of the Ombudsman, she said there was indeed such talk, but gave no details. With a report from Allan Nawal and Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao