Aquino doubts Binay will break away from administration

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

President Benigno Aquino III doubts that Vice President Jejomar Binay will break away from his administration, even in 2016, and especially if the government continues to score successes in solving the country’s economic problems and in the fight against corruption.

Mr. Aquino said economic developments under his administration so far had been quite impressive and further successes toward the end of his term would limit the number of politicians who would want to be in the opposition.

The President stressed that Binay is a member of the administration and is a contributor to the gains of the government.

“Vice President Binay is a part of the administration, where he is a partner in improving the situation in the Philippines,” Mr. Aquino said in a briefing for reporters in Malacañang.

“So if this is something that’s helping your political career, would you turn against it? I think it is in his interest as a part of the Cabinet to really help us fully in looking after [overseas Filipino workers], in the field of housing, for the ambitions of the present administration to succeed,” the President said.

On Sunday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview that a split between the President and the Vice President is “inevitable” because they belong to different political parties.

The President belongs to the Liberal Party (LP) while the Vice President belongs to the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), two groups that have different platforms of government and approaches to solving the country’s numerous problems.

Binay is preparing to run for president in 2016. But as the President is expected to endorse Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, the LP president, as his presidential candidate, Binay may break away from the administration and lead the opposition as the presidential standard-bearer of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

UNA is a coalition of Binay’s Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) and the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of former President Joseph Estrada.

But Binay may not even be thinking of breaking away from the Aquino administration. He told reporters on Monday that UNA is open to other parties that share its goals for the nation, including the Liberal Party.

“There have been talks” between leaders of UNA and LP, he said. But the talks, he made clear, were not yet formal, only “peripheral.”

President Aquino himself said earlier that he was not ruling out a coalition with UNA.

Originally posted: 3:37 pm | Monday, April 16th, 2012