Former vice president Jejomar Binay will join the senatorial slate under the tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III in 2022.

Sotto announced this in a Viber chat with the media, first teasing reporters that he met a new addition to their slate, and described this person as “big time” or high profile.

When pressed for answers, Sotto said Binay confirmed that he would run for senator under the Lacson-Sotto tandem.

Lacson and Sotto are eyeing to be the “alternative candidates” for president and vice president in 2022, respectively.

Binay is the newest addition to the earlier list of 10 people released by Sotto. A number of reelectionist senators are also part of that list.

If the former vice president wins, he would serve alongside daughter Nancy who was reelected as a senator in 2019, and whose term ends in 2024.

Family members or relatives serving the Senate at same time is nothing new.

Loi Ejercito and her son Jinggoy Estrada were both senators in the 13th Congress. Others who served the Senate at the same time are siblings Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, and cousins John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña and Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III.

Binay, who founded the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) now chaired by Nancy, is making a political comeback in 2022 after losing in two consecutive elections: the 2016 presidential elections and the Makati congressional race in 2019. – Rappler.com