UNA confident Binay will be president in 2016
By Leila B. Salaverria, Gil Cabacungan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—Even if his senatorial slate was soundly beaten by President Aquino’s candidates in the recently concluded polls, Vice President Jejomar Binay is still the man to beat for the presidency in 2016, according to United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) campaign manager Toby Tiangco.
Tiangco disagreed with the view that the midterm election was a contest between the President and Binay, the UNA’s main endorser and a prominent presence in the ticket’s major campaign rallies.
Binay has made it clear that he intends to run for president in 2016. During the campaign, UNA senatorial candidates referred to him as the country’s next President.
“People have been trying to project this as a prelude to 2016. Definitely it is not because the Vice President is not running against the President and the President is not running against the Vice President for obvious reasons,” Tiangco said at a press briefing.
“So though we have declared the Vice President will be the candidate in 2016, he will not be running against P-Noy,” he added.
Moreover, the Liberal Party candidate in 2016, whoever he or she may be, can hardly be expected to tout the results of the 2013 midterm elections in campaigning for the presidency, Tiangco claimed.
Political players may want to view it that way, he said, but the ordinary voter in a presidential campaign would rather hear candidates talk about how to make their lives better.
“The farmer, the fisherman, the laborer, would they look at it that way? Or would they think, ‘Which candidate will give me a better life after the election’?” he said.
Binay has also been enjoying the highest trust and approval ratings among elected officials, he noted.
Given all this, Tiangco is sure Binay will ascend to the country’s highest political post in 2016.
“I’m saying he will be the next president,” he said.