AFTER confirming he is running with Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the 2022 elections, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III bared their tandem’s tentative list of candidates for the Senate, including past and current lawmakers.
They are incumbent senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Joel Villanueva, and Juan Miguel Zubiri; former senator and current House deputy speaker Loren Legarda; former senator now Sorsogon governor Francis Escudero; former senator now Information Secretary Gregorio Honasan; former senator JV Ejercito; Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez; and former Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal.
Escudero, Gatchalian, Ejercito, Legarda and Larrazabal are members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition of which Sotto is chairman.
Sotto most of them have agreed to be included in the senatorial list of the Lacson-Sotto tandem.
As for Torres-Gomez, Sotto said in a briefing yesterday, “If she is a member of PDP-Laban, I don’t see any problem because she sent word to me that she is okay to be included in our line-up.”
On Larrazabal, Sotto said, “He’s a former Comelec commissioner, iba ang pulso niya pagdating sa eleksyon. In the last two years, he’s been going around the country, getting to know people.”
In a Twitter post, Larrazabal said he was “humbled” by the inclusion in the line-up.
Sotto, in the same briefing, said they are considering four or five more names, including “one big personality” for their senatorial slate in next year’s polls.
“To be very candid about it, there are about four or five names that we are looking at and all five names are very experienced in legislating,” he said.
“Mayroon kaming kausap na malaking tao, baka sa Saturday magkasundo na kami (we are talking with a big personality, maybe on Saturday we will be able to finalize the plan),”he added.
But Sotto declined to identify the said “”big personality” adding that he and Lacson are studying suggestions from political parties such as Aksyon Demokratiko and Reporma with regard to their final senatorial line-up.
He said he has yet to consult his party mates in the NPC regarding his candidacy with Lacson and their proposed line-up, adding he will meet the NPC members in an assembly scheduled on July 28.
Sotto said the situation is too fluid at this time, adding that it could be possible that one or two names in their initial line up may not pursue their senatorial bid.
“Baka sa sampu may isa o dalawa na hindi tumakbo sa Senado. Senator Gordon might run for the presidency and Senator Gatchalian might run for vice president. It’s fluid but probably it will be clearer by October,” he said, adding that of the 10, only Gordon has yet to reply if he wants to be included in their slate.
Sotto also his team is focusing on alliances with parties such as Reporma and Aksyon Demokratiko instead of the ruling party, PDP-Laban or the Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the local party of Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, or even the Liberal Party.
He explained this was due to their past experience wherein the parties they allied with at the national level fielded candidates against their members in the local election, causing problems.
“At this point, it is not feasible. Kailangang pag-usapan muna namin because the Reporma is very strong in Region 11 (Davao region). Paano kami makikipag-alliance doon kung may bangga sa Reporma,” Sotto said referring to Hugpong.
“We have differences in the past when it comes to the local level. We have that experience with the PDP-Laban, LP, Nacionalista Party pero sa HNP we don’t have experience but its not a problem for us because it’s a local party, not a national party. It’s not useful for us to have an alliance doon (Hugpong),” he said.
As to the 1Sambayan coalition, Sotto said he could not yet comment but he said knowing Lacson, he would probably decline an alliance with the former.
Lacson earlier declined 1Sambayan’s offer for him to join the opposition coalition’s presidential nominees. — With Raymond Africa
