Binay hopes to get JPE’s support

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay remains hopeful that he will get the backing of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile in the 2016 presidential elections.

Binay said Enrile was one of the persons whom he sought for advice when he ran for vice president in 2010.

“Maybe it goes without saying, he’s like a father to me,” Binay said in a recent interview.

“When we chat we talk in Ibanag, because he’s from Cagayan and I’m from Isabela,” he said.

Enrile, 91, has gained temporary liberty after posting bail on his plunder and graft cases in connection with the pork barrel scam at the Sandiganbayan on Thursday.

The Supreme Court recently granted Enrile’s petition for bail and the senator was released on Thursday from his place of detention at the Philippine National Police General Hospital after posting a P1.45-million bail with the Sandiganbayan.

Binay, Enrile and former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada were considered as the “Three Kings” of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in 2013.

UNA was formally launched last July 1 as an opposition party that will participate in next year’s polls.

Estrada has admitted he is still undecided whether or not he will support Binay’s presidential bid. 

Estrada said he is “torn between two walls,” the other being his goddaughter Sen. Grace Poe, who has yet to decide whether or not she will run for higher office in 2016. 

Binay was Estrada’s running mate in the 2010 national elections. Poe, on the other hand, is the daughter of Estrada’s best friend, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Estrada expressed confidence yesterday that his son, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, will also be allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail like Enrile after both senators were charge with plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam.

In a telephone interview with The STAR, the elder Estrada said the evidence against his son is not strong and he is not a flight risk.

“It (Enrile’s bail) can be a precedent. The intention of the no-bail provision of the law is for the accused who are a flight risk. But Jinggoy is not a flight risk. He surrendered himself and I was the one who personally turned him over to the authorities. So, he is not a flight risk,“ Estrada said.

Estrada said that he wished that Jinggoy would be able to attend the Senate session to enable him to fulfill his duty as an elected senator.

“Aside from enabling Jinggoy to do his job as an elected senator, the government will also be able to save the money that it is using in securing Jinggoy in jail,” Estrada said.

                – With Jose Rodel Clapano