Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson and running mate Vicente Sotto III confirmed Wednesday they have dropped former Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista from their Senate slate for the 2022 national elections.
At the same time, presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao’s campaign manager Buddy Zamora expressed doubts on the possibility of a merger with the camp of rival bet Vice President Leni Robredo.
Interviewed on ANC, Zamora said all camps were willing to continue with their respective candidacies until the May 9 elections.
“I seriously doubt that [merger] because I would presume once we start it, nobody would want to quit in the middle or towards the end of the race. I’m sure all are committed to running, win or lose,” he said.
Zamora made the statement when asked about the possibility of one of the candidates yielding to the other to minimize the votes of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. after Robredo spoke well of Pacquiao.
At a press conference in Quezon City, Lacson disclosed that Bautista sent a letter informing them that he wanted to be the representative of the Nationalist People’s Coalition in presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte’s “UniTeam.”
Bautista filed his certificate of candidacy for senator under NPC, which is chaired by Sotto.
“I don’t know how to respond to his letter. I told SP (the Senate President) that I am not concerned about this issue because I am not a member of NPC,” Lacson said.
Before the press conference, Lacson and Sotto paid a courtesy call on Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte and Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, the Senate President’s son.
“What I can say right now is definitely as far as Mayor Joy and Gian are concerned, they are supporting us. We will wait if they will endorse us during their proclamation or when they feel they should do that. We leave it at that,” said Sotto when asked if Belmonte would officially declare her support for their ticket.
Sotto said it was important for them to get the support of the QC local government as this was where he started his political career. He served as the city’s vice mayor from 1988 to 1992.
For Lacson, Quezon City was important, being a vote-rich city with around 1.2 million registered voters. But he maintained they were not seeking any endorsements and left it to LGU officials to openly declare their support for them.
In related developments, Lacson said they were also working to validate reports of re-electionist Senator Richard Gordon’s supposed endorsement of another presidential and vice presidential tandem.
Gordon joined the proclamation rally of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan in Naga on Tuesday.
“We have to validate. It is hard to decide based on unvalidated reports,” Lacson said.
On the other hand, Sotto said other members of their senatorial slate—Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sherwin Gatchalian—had assured them they would not openly endorse another tandem throughout the election period.
Zubiri and Gatchalian were at the proclamation rally of Marcos and Mayor Inday Sara in Bulacan on Tuesday.
While he admitted their senatorial bets’ absence in their rallies had an effect on their campaign, Lacson said they would still accommodate them as long as they would not “openly” endorse anyone.
“I will be a hypocrite if I say it has no effect on us,” he said.
Members of the senatorial slate who were present at Lacson and Sotto’s proclamation rally on Tuesday were Partido Reporma stalwarts and former national police chief Guillermo Eleazar, Dr. Minguita Padilla, and former Makati Rep. Monsour del Rosario, as well as former
Senator JV Ejercito and former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol.
The Lacson-Sotto tandem was also endorsing Antique Rep. Loren Legarda, Sorsogon Governor Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Senator Joel Villanueva, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, former Information and Communications Secretary Gregorio Honasan II, and broadcaster Raffy Tulfo.