Guest senatorial bets not required to join UNA sorties

MANILA, Philippines - Guest senatorial candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) will not be required to join its campaign sorties.

“We don’t have such a requirement,” Rico Quicho, Vice President Jejomar Binay’s spokesman for political affairs, said over the weekend in Filipino.

“They’re free (to join us), because in UNA, the people come first.”  

UNA’s guest candidates are Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III; former senators Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri; Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and overseas Filipino workers’ advocate Susan Ople.

The regular UNA candidates are boxing champion Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, former Special Action Force director Getulio Napeñas, actress and Parañaque City councilor Alma Moreno, Princess Jacel Kiram of the  Sultanate of Sulu, veteran broadcaster Rey Langit and labor lawyer Allan Montaño.

Moreno, Kiram, Langit, Napeñas and Montaño have been seen with UNA standard-bearer Vice President Jejomar Binay in his recent sorties around the country. 

Binay’s camp has repeatedly denied this was a form of early campaigning.

UNA treats all its candidates fairly, Quicho said. 

“We don’t have comparison in UNA,” he said. “All are free to join and discuss their programs and intentions with the people.” 

Independent presidential and vice presidential candidates Grace Poe and Francis Escudero, who were both official Liberal Party senatorial candidates in 2013, were barred from joining the campaign sorties of UNA, where they both started out as guest candidates.