Former vice president Jejomar Binay is hoping to stage a political comeback as senator in the 2022 elections. 

Binay will be running under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), the party he founded for his failed presidential bid in 2016, according to the party’s secretary-general JV Bautista on Tuesday, October 5. 

Binay is set to file his candidacy for senator on Thursday, October 7.

“Former Vice President Jejomar Binay will run for the Senate under the United Nationalist Alliance. We welcome and are very grateful for the support extended to the former vice president by other political parties, and for him being invited to be part of their senatorial slate,” Bautista said in a statement. 

Binay was earlier invited to join the senatorial slate of presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson and his running mate, Senate President Vicente Sotto III. 

Bautista said UNA plans to adopt senatorial candidates of its own and is in the process of speaking with other political groups and organizations. 

If Binay wins in 2022, he would finally be able to stage his political comeback after losing in two consecutive elections. 

He suffered a tough defeat in the 2016 presidential race, finishing fourth and losing to then-Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte despite being a survey front-runner for months. 

Binay was later stunned by his ally-turned-foe Kid Peña in 2019 when he sought the congressional seat of Makati’s 1st District.

Political analysts believe the family patriarch lost in 2019 due to the messy fight for the Makati mayoral post between his two children: reelectionist Mayor Abigail “Abby” Binay” and former mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. 

Abby, who was abandoned by the clan, save for her father, later defeated Junjun with a wide lead of over 80,000 votes. She is now seeking her third term as mayor.

Binay’s defeat in 2019 shocked his family, which has long been entrenched in the country’s premiere business district where the patriarch ruled as mayor for years. 

The former vice president licked his wounds from his successive electoral losses and stepped away from the political spotlight for a while. 

But he has since reemerged as an opposition figure against President Duterte, whom Binay had called an “executioner”  in the final days of the 2016 campaign. 

2 Binays in the Senate?

If the stars align for Binay this time, he would serve alongside daughter Nancy, who was reelected senator in 2019, and whose term ends in 2024.

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

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.

Half-brothers JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada have also filed their respective candidacies for senator in the 2022 elections. – Rappler.com