MANILA – Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay emphasized that his emerging team-up with Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan will be called “Bin-Go,” not “Bi-Hon.”
Binay reiterated “Bingo,” which was a fun acronym for Binay and Gringo. He did not, however, officially declare that Honasan willbe his running mate under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in next year’s national elections.
The Vice President will leave it to UNA’s selection committee to formally announce the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
“We have an agreement within the party that when it comes to matters like that, we’ll let the selection committee make the statements and explanations,” he said, confirming that he has indeed recently been meeting with Honasan.
“Senator Honasan is very, very organized. Senator Honasan got more than 10 million votes in the 2013 elections… He will be the strongest [contender] if ever,” he added, mentioning that the senator ranked high in pre-elections surveys even without expressing interest in seeking higher post.
Meanwhile, Honasan has repeatedly said that he had no interest in joining the vice-presidential race in the coming general elections and preferred helping Binay in his campaign while remaining as a senator.
“I have no interest in running… I’m working on organizing the party, UNA. I’m not visible or audible. That’s far from my mind because I want to ride into the sunset in 2019,” he earlier said.
But with UNA seriously considering him to be Binay’s running mate, the coup-plotter-turned senator will then abide by the party’s decision.
“The UNA party which I am helping organize is deliberating on it. A decision will be made and I will subordinate myself to that decision,” he said.