Honasan finds ‘Bi-Hon’ not to his taste
No, he’s not having any “Bi-Hon,” Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II said on Tuesday, referring not to the thin rice noodles, but to a possible Binay-Honasan tandem that Vice President Jejomar Binay has been floating when asked about his running mate in next year’s national elections.
“The noodles might sell more,” Honasan said, quashing speculations that he was running for higher office in 2016.
For the second straight day, Binay has included the senator among the three possible running mates being considered by the selection committee of his party, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
The Vice President had earlier named Honasan and Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as possible choices, but he declined to identify the third on his list.
Honasan said he and Binay had not even spoken about a possible team-up, and that such news could have been a joke, a play on their names to come up with a noodle dish familiar to most Filipinos.
Senator Marcos confirmed that “intermediaries” from Binay’s camp had approached him about a team-up, but that he had yet to decide on his political plans in 2016.
Marcos said he still had to examine in great detail the different options available to him and that he was, at the moment, in close consultation with the Nacionalista Party.
He and Binay have yet to meet face-to-face, the senator said, “but then again (the team-up) is something that will be decided not only by me but by the party as well,” he added.
Marcos said he wanted to keep his options open and was looking at either the presidency or the vice presidency.
Seeking reelection as a senator was also on the table, he added, until the deadline for the filing of candidacy lapses.
The senator’s first six-year term ends next year and he has the option of running for a second term.
“It would have been better if I had no choice so that it would be easy to decide,” Marcos said. “But I have a lot of choices. (That’s) why we’ll be very careful,” he added.
Despite Honasan’s disavowal of plans to run for public office in 2016, Binay has maintained that Marcos and Honasan are among the three on the UNA list.
“First, it’s very certain that (UNA) will have a vice presidential candidate,” Binay said.
“Second, it won’t be long and we will announce our candidate,” he added in a radio interview.
To help Binay campaign
Honasan, whose term in the Senate ends in 2019, said he had not even considered the possibility of running in 2016, preferring instead to remain behind the scenes as UNA vice president, and help Binay in his presidential campaign.
The senator underscored the importance of “(raising) the level of discourse so that it will be platform- and program-based,” instead of “bite-slinging that creates deep wounds that percolate beyond elections.”
Should the Binay-Marcos tandem become definite, Honasan said he would support this “formidable team.”
Honasan also said it was about time the government allow the burial of Senator Marcos’ father, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, whose remains are in a mausoleum at his hometown of Batac, Ilocos Norte province.
Binay, Honasan said, had made a study early on during the Aquino administration on the question of Marcos’ burial and had recommended that his remains be buried in Batac with full military honors.
“I’m talking about something procedural because it’s been a long time (that Marcos has lain in state),” the senator said.
Burying the ousted dictator would allow us “to move on,” said Honasan, who led a coup against Marcos in 1986 that was supported by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, then the defense minister.
During the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986, Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii where he died in 1989. In 1993, then President
Fidel Ramos allowed the return of Marcos’ remains to the country.
