Despite being dumped by Garcias, Binay confident of win in Cebu

Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday said he remained confident he would win in Cebu even though its local political party bolted out of its alliance with him due to loyalty issues.

In an interview with reporters in Cebu City, where he is set to attend a grand proclamation rally, Binay said he may have lost in the vote-rich province in the 2010 vice presidential race but he was confident of winning more votes now that he was running for the presidency.

“Sabihin na lang natin, better than my performance in 2010. Kasi noong 2010, although sa computation namin, kumbaga halimbawa, ang computation namin is ‘x’ and lumabas sa resulta ay ‘x+1.’ Di, nanalo pa kami in that sense. Palagay ko mas mataas pa kami dun sa x,” Binay said.

In 2010, Binay lost big in Cebu, the country’s most vote-rich province.

Binay got only 414,417 votes, as opposed to his nemesis Mar Roxas’ 1,054,708 votes. Still, Binay beat Roxas for the vice presidency by a slim margin of 727,084 votes.

Cebu is home to close to 2.7 million registered voters.

The Vice President said he did not mind losing the support of One Cebu president gubernatorial candidate Winston Garcia.

Binay said he would focus instead on campaigning directly to the people instead of relying on the clout of a political group.

“Ang kampanya ko ay diretso sa tao. Hindi naman ako umaasa lang sa mga kakamping pulitiko pero sa karanasan ko, walang kapalit yong kampanyang diretso sa tao. Hindi ’yong dinadaan pa kung kaninong leader,” Binay said.

Binay on Tuesday is set to attend two grand proclamation rallies in Cebu—in Toledo and Cebu cities—where respective mayors Sonny Osmeña and his ally Mike Rama are expected to attend.

Binay said despite the rift with One Cebu, Garcia’s daughter Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia remained a member of his United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) party.

The alliance between Binay and One Cebu fell through only a month after the Garcias announced their support for the UNA standard-bearer.

In announcing the breakup, Garcia accused Binay’s team of neglect and disloyalty by failing to include them in their campaign sorties in the province.

READ: Garcias’ One Cebu Party dumps Binay

“One Cebu entered into an alliance with UNA in the belief that it will be a partnerships of equals. UNA treated One Cebu like Imperial Manila treats the rest of the Philippines (with disrespect),” Garcia said.

He said UNA did not inform or coordinate with them on Binay’s sortie in Carcar City, Dalaguete, Argao and Talisay City.

He added that Binay’s team had been coordinating with the opponents of One Cebu’s local candidates.

“Right from the outset, UNA regarded the alliance as nothing more than a marriage of convenience,” he said. RC

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