United opposition comes up with 5 Senate slates

At this point, the United Opposition (UNO) seems all but united.

In what could be the most confused political grouping, the UNO bared yesterday at least five different lists of candidates for the May 14 senatorial elections.

The five different lists of 12 senatorial candidates of the UNO were bared yesterday by each of the leaders of the loose coalition of opposition parties.

Detained President Joseph Estrada, who is the titular head of the UNO, earlier announced his withdrawal from the selection of senatorial candidates following squabbles among the aspirants jockeying for a slot in the UNO Senate ticket.

Estrada earlier told The STAR he was leaving the selection of the lineup to the UNO executive committee. This is composed of Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay representing the PDP-Laban, Senate president Manuel Villar Jr. as head of the Nacionalista Party (NP), Sen. Franklin Drilon, president of the Liberal Party (LP), Ernesto Maceda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, former agrarian reform secretary Horacio Morales as president of Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), and former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. as the representative of civil society.

Thus, the UNO came up with different lineups yesterday, depending on who is talking.

Mayor Binay, who is the president of UNO as registered in the Commission on Elections, announced that they have so far picked eight senatorial candidates.

Binay’s Senate lineup for UNO includes former senator Loren Legarda, reelectionist Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, former senator John Osmeña, Reps. Francis "Chiz" Escudero (NPC, Sorsogon), Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III (LP, Tarlac) and Alan Peter Cayetano (NPC, Taguig-Pateros), San Juan Mayor J.V. Ejercito and lawyer Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III.

Binay said the remaining four slots would likely be filled by reelectionists NP Senators Villar and Ralph Recto, and fellow reelectionist Senators Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan (LP) and Joker Arroyo (Independent).

Lito Banayo, who was designated by Estrada as the official spokesman for UNO, on the other hand, texted The STAR yesterday with a longer list.

"Nothing really final but this is the short list –Chiz, Alan, Noynoy, Villar, Ping, Recto, Kiko, J.V, Pimentel, Loren, plus two of the following: Joker, John Osmeña, Sonia Roco, and Guingona," Banayo disclosed.

From his rest house in Tanay, Rizal, Estrada confirmed that the UNO has already sent him the final lineup.

From Estrada’s UNO lineup, only eight names also came out, that of Villar, Cayetano, Joker Arroyo, Recto, Pangilinan, Aquino III, Escudero, Legarda and Osmeña.

Estrada told The STAR he would have preferred Sonia Roco instead of Arroyo but the reelectionist senator is on the list of Villar’s reelectionist team.

The feeling is mutual for Joker, who confided to The STAR he could not possibly run under the Estrada-backed UNO Senate ticket.

"Imagine, I was the chief prosecutor during Estrada’s impeachment trial and now, I will run under his ticket. What would that make me?" Arroyo pointed out.

Last Monday, the Drilon-wing of the LP announced its Senate ticket, which included Pangilinan, Aquino III, Reps. Nerio Acosta (Bukidnon), Ruffy Biazon (Muntinlupa) and Erin Tañada (Quezon), and former education secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad.

Drilon said his LP and Villar’s so-called Wednesday group at the Senate, which includes Recto, Pangilinan, and Arroyo would join forces and run together under one coalition.

With the deadline of filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) on Feb. 12, it is only Escudero so far who has filed his candidacy at the Commission on Elections, under NPC.

Although he is in all the UNO Senate lineups, Escudero did not take any chances, omitting his UNO affiliation in his certificate of candidacy. - with Michael Punongbayan and Christina Mendez