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After both failing to win Senate seats in 2019, half-brothers JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada are giving it another try.

Estrada announced he is again running for senator in a Facebook live broadcast on Wednesday, September 29. His younger half-brother JV made a similar announcement last Friday, September 24.

In the 2019 race, Ejercito managed to be included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s senatorial slate. He was a guest candidate of PDP-Laban. Duterte had also initially endorsed Estrada at an event, but later on said he had only raised the politician’s hand because they were in the same activity and it would have been awkward not to have done so.

Both brothers were part of the senatorial slate of Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Sara had even poked fun at the rivalry between the two in campaign speeches.

Ejercito and Estrada are sons of the former president with different partners. The elder Jinggoy is the son of former senator Dr Loi Estrada while JV’s mother is former San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez. Their rivalry worsened because of politics in San Juan, where they both sat as mayors.

The animosity grew when Ejercito signed a 2014 Senate committee report against former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and his half-brother over the alleged misuse of pork barrel.

Estrada continues to face a P183-million plunder case over the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam but he has been out on bail since September 2017, when the Sandiganbayan 5th Division granted his petition for bail in a close 3-2 vote.

Estrada, in his virtual candidacy launch, said he hoped he and JV would win this time around.

“Ang panalangin ko na lang, manalo kaming dalawa sapagkat ang dugong nalalantay sa amin ay ang panglilingkod nang tapat sa taumbayan,” he said. (My prayer is that both of us win because the blood that flows in our veins is in the service of our countrymen.)

The Estradas are trying to make a political comeback after their family lost big in the 2019 elections. Their patriarch, former president Joseph Estrada, lost the Manila mayoral race to Isko Moreno. His granddaughter, mayoral bet Janella Ejercito Estrada, lost in San Juan while his daughter with Laarni Enriquez, Jerika Ejercito, lost in her bid for councilor in the 4th district of Manila. – Rappler.com