Three powerful political families in southern Metro Manila—the Cayetanos of Taguig City, the Calixtos in Pasay City, and the Binays of Makati City—want to continue what their earlier generations have started and make needed improvements to further uplift the lives of their constituents.
For the May 2019 midterm elections, three Cayetanos, led by outgoing Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, are vying for positions in Taguig.
Alan Peter is reportedly making a comeback as representative of the Taguig-Pateros district, while his brother Lino Edgardo, a television director and former Taguig congressman, is joining the mayoralty race. He would replace sister-in-law and incumbent Mayor Ma. Laarni “Lani” Cayetano, Alan Peter’s wife, who is serving her third and last term as city chief executive.
Incumbent Taguig City Rep. Pia Cayetano is also gunning for a Senate seat in the midterm polls, as she and brother Alan Peter both served in the upper chamber during the 14th Congress.
Their father, the late Renato Luna Cayetano—popularly known as “Compañero” because of the popular public affairs talk show “Compañero y Compañera” in the ‘90s—also served as senator from 1998 to 2003.
Alan Peter, the running mate of eventual President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 presidential elections, is reportedly seeking the leadership role of the House of Representatives if he wins next year.
He said President Duterte agreed it would be better if the Foreign Affairs chief serves as House Speaker to help the administration achieve its goals.
“We had a heart-to-heart talk, and we both agreed that a role in Congress and a leadership position in Congress would be good in terms of pursuing that vision. With all humility, I will seek another term in my hometown, Taguig-Pateros, the district of Taguig and Pateros, and then let’s see where it goes from there,” he said.
Alan Peter still had three more years to serve as a senator when he accepted Duterte’s appointment to head the Department of Foreign Affairs in May 2017.
Meanwhile, Lino Edgardo Cayetano said he wants to improve all the programs and projects initiated by his sister-in-law Lani as mayor. He is running alongside incumbent Taguig City Vice Mayor Ricardo “Ading” Cruz.
The Cayetanos are planning to file their certificates of candidacy early this week.
In Pasay City, incumbent Mayor Antonino Calixto, who is on his third and last term, is joining the race in the city’s lone congressional district to replace his sister incumbent Pasay City Rep. Imelda Calixto-Rubiano who, on the other hand, wants to replace her brother and be the next city chief executive.
Antonino’s son Mark Anthony and nephew Joey Calixto Isidro are running for councilors.
Congressman Rubiano, if elected as mayor next year, said vowed to work closely with members of the City Council to “focus on the needed improvements under Calixto’s administration.”
Both Antonino and Imelda were city councilors during the time of the late former Pasay City mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad.
Their father Eduardo “Duay” Martin Calixto served as mayor officer-in-charge of Pasay City following the EDSA People Power Revolution that resulted in the ouster of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos from Malacanang in 1986.
“It seems that (the people of Pasay) see how the Calixto family served since the time of our father,” said Rubiano, who is running with incumbent Vice Mayor Noel “Boyet” del Rosario.
The Calixtos, who filed their certificates of candidacy last Thursday, also promised they will continue all the projects intended for poor families and improve further public school facilities in the city.
Among the programs and projects initiated by the Calixtos are the Take Care I Care Green Card, the Malibay Community Center, Dental and Medical missions, free wheelchairs for senior citizens, Special Program for Employment of Students, Tulong Panghanap-buhay sa ating Disadvantage Workers, Livelihood for indigent residents, and free clean water for all barangays.
In the City of Makati, former mayor and vice president Jejomar Binay is running for the city’s first congressional district.
Binay, who served as city chief executive in Makati from 1986 to 1998, and from 2001 to 2010, wants to work to ensure that residents of the city’s First District will continue to receive the “Binay brand of service” in terms of relevant health, education and social services.
During his term as Makati mayor, the elder Binay introduced reforms that turned around Makati from a bankrupt municipality to the country’s financial district.
Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Mar-Len Abigail “Abby” Binay-Campos is reportedly challenging her brother and also former mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay in the mayoralty race next year.
Junjun said he is ready to run against his sister to maintain the “Binay-brand” of governance in Makati.
“She said many times that she is a different Binay. But she will not go down to meet with the people,” said Junjun. “What’s more important is sino ang gusto ng mga tao na maglingkod dito sa lungsod. I think that’s the more important question,” he said.
Abby, on the other hand, said it was “sexist” for her brother to say that the poll rivalry was a “Binay vs. Campos.” She is also contesting the eligibility of her brother as a candidate due to his pending case.
Abby also said Junjun must first settle his case before thinking of a comeback in politics.
But veteran election lawyer and former Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., said the case is not a hindrance to his client’s candidacy, adding that it is not final and executory.
“Nothing is final. No ground for any disqualification against Junjun,” Brillantes said.
Last May, the Court of Appeals issued a resolution reversing the 2015 decision dismissing Junjun and several other city officials and barred them from holding public office in connection with the construction of Makati City Hall Building II.
The CA, in its 159-page decision written by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, reversed the 2015 ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman, saying (Junjun) Binay is still covered by the 2010 Supreme Court decision that reiterated its 1959 condonation doctrine which extinguishes the administrative liability of an elective public official once reelected to the same post.
Incumbent Senator Nancy Binay, who is seeking reelection and was accompanied by Junjun when she filed her certificate of candidacy at the Comelec main office in Manila last Friday, said their family will discuss the “matter” happening now between Abby and Junjun once their father returned to Manila from Vatican.
In 2016, Abby was replaced by her husband Luis Campos as representative in the second district when she ran and won for mayor against Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr., who will make a challenge with the former vice president in the first congressional district of the city.
Abigail is the fourth in the Binay family who was elected mayor in Makati. First was her father followed by her mother Dra. Elenita Binay, and the last one was Junjun.
Junjun was supposed to run for reelection in the city in 2016 but his dismissal order from the Office of the Ombudsman over allegations of irregularities in the city prompted the Binay family and the United Nationalist Alliance, the political party of the vice president, to field Abigail.
Makati, a city with more than 370,000 registered voters, has been a stronghold of Binays since the Vice President was appointed by then late President Corazon Aquino as its officer-in-charge in 1986.