MANILA, Philippines — Former Vice President Jejomar Binay formalized his bid to join the Senate race in the 2022 national elections.
Binay filed his Certificate of Candidacy, under the United Nationalist Alliance which he founded, on Thursday morning.
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In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Binay said he is presenting to the people his 30 years in public service.
“In the time of pandemic, we have seen how our people were largely neglected. We should fix that,” he said in Filipino.
Binay continued: “Our first priority should be to help four million of our countrymen who lost their jobs, more than three million families that went hungry, and the thousands of small business that closed down. We should help them to recover.”
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.
Binay was also among the petitioners against Duterte’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, under the revived human rights lawyers' group Concerned Lawyers for Civil Liberties.
CLCL is a broad network of lawyers and law students first formed during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and was revived in 2019 to protect the people's rights under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
READ: Revived lawyers' group file 25th legal challenge vs anti-terrorism law
Binay served as mayor of Makati City, the family’s bailiwick, for six terms.
He was vice president to the late President Benigno Aquino III, from 2010-2016. During this stint, he served as 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.
His last years in the vice presidency was marked by numerous corruption allegations which he dismissed as politically motivated.
In 2016, he ran but lost to President Rodrigo Duterte.
He attempted to make a political comeback in the midterm elections in 2019 as Makati's congressional representative, but he lost to former Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña by 5,806 votes. — with reports from Xave Gregorio