UNA sees cracks in Team PNoy over Senate leadership

Will the Team PNoy coalition hold long enough to successfully throw out Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile after the elections?

The rival United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) candidates raised this question Wednesday amid reports that the Liberal Party coalition may install its own Senate President and remove Enrile if enough of its candidates win in the May elections.

Enrile is one of the leaders of UNA.

Nancy Binay said that, unlike UNA, an alliance formally registered with the Commission on Elections, the Liberal Party-led Team PNoy coalition has no such concrete agreement to bind them.

Binay noted that even in its TV ad, not all of the LP coalition candidates wore yellow.

“At the end of the day, the senators will do what will be good for the Senate,” she said.

Reelectionist Sen. Gregorio Honasan said any change in the Senate leadership would hinge on the strength of the LP coalition after the polls.

“Everything is up in the air. That would depend if the administration coalition will hold,” Honasan told reporters.

Honasan said he hoped Enrile is able to hold on to his post so the Senate would remain independent.

Honasan claimed not to have heard of any plot to remove Enrile, adding that it would not be good to talk about such matters so early into the campaign.—Leila B. Salaverria and Norman Bordadora