| Vice President Jejomar Binay |
Malacañang on Wednesday released a statement that said that President Benigno Aquino 3rd was grooming a successor who would sustain his reforms in the government.
“The President said that it is important that the reforms he has initiated in the bureaucracy are
Mr. Aquino said that maintaining these gains needs the collective efforts of the people.
“The point is that if we are able to really transform the country, sulit [more than we could ask for]. So of course that’s the target, that we will be successful in training our successor and the successor is an inheritor of something that is so good that people are so used to that system that there’s no possibility of backsliding,” the President added.
On Tuesday, he slammed the door on Vice President Jejomar Binay or any other member of the so-called Samar group, saying that he will not endorse Binay as a candidate in the 2016 race to Malacañang.
Mr. Aquino added that he was also not keen on including any member of the Samar group of Binay in the line-up of candidates for senators of the ruling Liberal Party (LP), which he leads.
During a recent interview aired by ABS-CBN television network, he said, “It might be difficult” to include the Binay group in the administration ticket in the 2013 elections for Senate seats and the 2016 elections for president.
Binay defeated former Sen. Manuel Roxas 2nd, President Aquino’s running mate, in the 2010 polls.
“Everybody will agree to the concept of [having] one candidate. Then it comes to which candidate, [there lies the] disagreement,” Mr. Aquino said.
He, however, denied harboring ill-feelings toward Binay’s Samar group, which supposedly is at odds with Roxas’ so-called Balay group.
“Of course you have to prepare for a bruising battle in 2016. How many candidates will there be once 2016 comes in? You have to really differentiate and be the frontrunner and all that,” the President said.
The Samar group supported the Aquino-Binay pairing in the 2010 balloting.
The group was named after a street in Quezon City (Metro Manila) where a house owned by realtor Gerry Acuzar, brother-in-law of now Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., was used by supporters of Mr. Aquino and Binay.
The group that supported Roxas was called Balay because it was meeting in a balay (house) at the Araneta compound in Cubao, Quezon City (Metro Manila) that is owned by the family of Roxas’ mother, Judy Araneta-Roxas.
The President’s position dropping Binay was confirmed by Malacanang spokesman Edwin Lacierda also on Wednesday during a Palace press briefing.
“I think that he clearly explained the position why it is not possible [for him to endorse Binay]. He said that it will be difficult. So we will leave it at that,” Lacierda said.
Binay was reported to be forming his own unified coalition that will be composed mostly of individuals who belong to the Samar group.
The Vice President has named the unified coalition’s five possible candidates for the Senate—incumbent Senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Aquilino Pimentel 3rd and Gregorio Honasan and former Sen. Jose Miguel Zubiri.
Meanwhile, the apparent bias of Mr. Aquino against the Samar group was made evident when he mentioned several names as possible Senate candidates of the Liberal Party in the 2013 national polls.
The President, during the ABS-CBN television interview, said that he would want Rufino Biazon, now head of the Bureau of Customs; former Rep. Risa Hontiveros Baraquel of Akbayan party-list; Danilo Lim, now also a Customs official; and incumbent Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th in the administration ticket.
He added that he was considering other candidates from other parties since he wants the administration ticket to be a “big tent” that will include candidates from other groups that supported him in his run for president.
Mr. Aquino did not mention Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who is being considered by Roxas as one of LP’s candidates for the Senate in 2013.
Deeply honored
Trillanes also on Wednesday said that he was honored that the President wanted him in the LP’s list of candidates.
“I’m honored to be considered a candidate of the administration in 2013. Policy-wise, the President has been consistent with his reform agenda,” he added in a text message.
Trillanes, who is known for his reform advocacy, ran and won in the 2007 polls while in detention as an independent candidate.
He placed 11th, defeating some of the candidates of then-President Gloria Arroyo.
Trillanes said that Mr. Aquino has been consistent in pushing for reforms in the government and there is no reason for him to be with the opposition.
Biazon seemed not effusive as Trillanes, telling The Manila Times that he wants to focus on his job at the Customs bureau.
“I’m not thinking of the elections at this time. I’m planning to stay here as long as the President allows me to stay here. I need to fulfill my mission here,” he said.
“I am very thankful for the confidence of the President but I have to focus on the job I have on hand right now, instead of being distracted at this point, so I have to prove to him I am worthy of his trust.”
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