UNA formally selects Sen. Gringo Honasan as Binay’s running mate

This is not the call of the Vice President.

“For me, Senator Greg is very much qualified”.

“Binay declined to give a detailed account of his conversation with Marcos, but he did say that “[naging] maganda ‘yung usapan (the conversation went well)”.

Vice President Jejomar Binay will be running in tandem with Senator Gregorio Honasan in the May 2016 elections, their party, the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), announced on Tuesday.

“He has championed the rights of the urban poor and farmers, and promoted the welfare of the masses, government workers, and our men and women in uniform”, Tiangco said of Honasan.

Speaking to reporters, Senator Binay was asked what was the better name for the potential tandem between her father and Honasan. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s camp failed to materialize.

If ever Honasan decides to accept the UNA’s offer, he will become the fourth from Bicol to run for vice president.

“I have not formally received the letter but I would like to ask for more time to consult my family. Ego is a luxury I can not afford”, he replied. “I’m not after superstar status”.

Marcos, who has yet to finalize his vice presidential bid, had admitted that he is in talks with the intermediaries of Binay and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

He also said that whatever the outcome, he wants to be remembered as somebody “who made decisions not only in terms of personalities involved but the issues involved, the long term view that will allow our country to proceed with programs unimpeded with partisan, political, short term considerations”. “I am open to it but I am not committed to it”, he said.

“This is a party decision of which even the Vice President as the titular head of UNA, must subordinate ourselves to”.

Tiangco said Honasan’s expertise on peace and order, as well as in national defense is what set him apart from the other vice presidential aspirants.

He said he would make a decision before the start of the filing of certificate of candidacy on October 12. Consulting his family, he said, especially his children and grandchildren, was “agonizing”.

“He had previously taken actions for which he did not get their approval and most of the time it had resulted in problems”, Sotto told reporters.

Asked if it would be hard to convince his colleagues to attend sessions, he said, “That’s their conscience”.

The Vice President, former Makati mayor for 21 years, used to be the front runner in presidential preference surveys but has been overtaken by Senator Grace Poe following the onslaught of orruption allegations against him and members of his family.

“But more than this, I was also fortunate enough to have been under the tutelage of teachers who taught, not merely because it was their job to do so, but because they valued and loved their profession”.