Binay to kick off campaign in Mandaluyong slum today

MANILA, Philippines - A large slum community in Mandaluyong City is the venue of today’s miting de avance of United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) standard-bearer Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Binay, said his spokesman Joey Salgado, has chosen to officially launch his presidential bid at the Welfareville compound “to be with the Filipino poor.” The opposition party’s miting de avance will start at 3 p.m. 

Expected to join Binay are his running mate Sen. Gregorio Honasan II, as well as the party’s candidates for senator, including former Special Action Forces director Getulio Napeñas, Parañaque councilor and actress Alma Moreno, Princess Jacel Kiram, labor lawyer Allan Montaño and broadcaster Rey Langit.

Salgado said the Vice President wants to be with ordinary Filipinos “who have been left behind and continue to struggle with poverty, hunger and unemployment.”

“The Vice President chose to hold his proclamation rally at Welfareville because he wanted to share with the masses his vision of a nation where rich and poor share the benefits of economic growth,” Salgado said.

After Mandaluyong, Salgado said Binay will continue with his campaign in the vote-rich provinces of Rizal and Laguna this week.

Binay won over Liberal Party presidential bet Manuel Roxas II by more than 230,000 votes in Laguna in the 2010 vice presidential race.

Binay opted not to launch his campaign in Makati City – his family’s stronghold in the Metro Manila – on concerns that acting Mayor Romulo Peña would not grant him a rally permit, UNA president and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco earlier explained.

Peña, a member of the ruling LP, replaced the Vice President’s son, Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., who was dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman over allegations of irregularities in the Makati City Science High School building project.