Jejomar Binay to run for senator in 2022 elections
MANILA, Philippines — Former Vice President Jejomar Binay is set to mount a senatorial bid in the 2022 elections under the United Nationalist Alliance, which he founded for his failed presidential run in 2016.
UNA Secretary General JV Bautista announced this development on Tuesday, noting that other political parties have invited Binay to join their senatorial slate.
“At the moment, nothing has been finalized yet and UNA is still in talks with other organizations/political groups and is in the process of adopting senatorial candidates from these parties who share UNA’s vision and platform of government,” Bautista said in a statement.
Among the parties that have been in talks with Binay is Partido Reporma, whose chairman Sen. Ping Lacson is running for president.
Lacson and his running mate Senate President Tito Sotto met Monday in Makati with Binay and his daughter, Sen. Nancy Binay, who is also UNA’s president.
Reporma announced that the older Binay will be part of their senatorial slate, but will be filing his candidacy under UNA.
The former vice president has been active on social media criticizing the way that President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has responded to the pandemic.
“Until government shapes up, we will be trapped in this loop of uncertainty because of government’s inefficiency and lack of urgency,” the former vice president tweeted in July.
As vice president, he served as the Aquino administration’s housing czar and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ affairs from 2010 until his resignation in 2015 before he launched UNA as the major opposition party for the 2016 polls.
Binay’s final years in the vice presidency was marked by numerous corruption allegations, which he dismissed as politically motivated.
In 2019, he tried to make a political comeback as Makati's congressional representative, but he lost to former Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña by 5,806 votes.
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