By Coleen Magahis
Former Vice President Jejomar Binay will join the senatorial line up of the Lacson-Sotto tandem for the 2022 elections, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Saturday.
“Ongoing meeting with our new Senatorial Candidate! Sabi ko sa inyo big time eh!” Sotto said in a Viber message to reporters.
“Yes, he [Binay] confirmed with us [he will join our] senatorial lineup,” he added.
Sotto earlier said he and Senator Panfilo Lacson are neither opposition nor administration bets.
“We are not pro-opposition. We are not pro-administration. We are pro-Filipinos,” he said.
Lacson, an independent candidate, has yet to be adopted by the Nationalist People’s Coalition, of which Sotto is the chairman.
But Sotto said a party decision will likely be reached on July 28, and a formal announcement will be made on Aug. 4.
Prior to announcing Binay’s inclusion in their senatorial lineup, Sotto named 10 possible candidates, namely: former senators JV Ejercito, Francis Escudero Gregorio Honasan II, and Loren Legarda, re-electionists Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Joel Villanueva and Juan Miguel Zubiri; former Commission on Elections commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, and Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez.
“Those are what Senator Lacson and I had talked about who we want to be senators, or come back in senatorial position. We know they will be great, not just on being senators, but for the nation,” Sotto said.
“We could provide a good alternative for the people in 2022,” he added.