THE Ejercito-Estrada political clan of San Juan appeared divided Monday over which candidate to support in this year’s elections after Mayor Guia Gomez of San Juan decided to back Manuel Roxas II instead of Senator Grace Poe for the presidency.
Gomez, who made the announcement in San Juan on the same day, said her decision to support Roxas was not binding on the other family members including her son Senator JV Ejercito and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
“Well, yes. The family may be split, but I’m already decided—I have already made up my mind,” Gomez told reporters.
She said her decision stemmed from the help that the former Interior secretary had extended to her city.
“She’s [Poe] too young. I feel that maybe she should run first for vice president,” Gomez said.
Ejercito said that while he respected his mother’s decision to support Roxas, he would remain supportive of Poe.
“My mother and I had experienced sleepless nights as most of the presidentiables are all close to us. She has her own reasons, and I do not see anything wrong with this,” he said.
But Mayor Estrada has yet to announce whom to support for 2016.
On Saturday, Roxas’ wife, former broadcaster Korina Sanchez, posted social media messages hinting that the administration standard bearer might have finally gotten the support of the Estrada patriarch.
Sanchez, in her Instagram account, posted a photo of her and Estrada when they were both in Tondo, Manila, for the Feast of the Santo Niño.
“Korina, I will always tell everyone that I think Mar Roxas is the most qualified to become president,” Sanchez quoted Estrada as saying.
But Gomez said the former President had always been inclined to support the opposition bet.
Ejercito said his father was thinking of supporting “the candidacy of either Senator Grace Poe or Vice President Jejomar Binay.”
