Manila: One of seven hopefuls running for the Philippine presidency in the May elections has withdrawn from the race and is now backing Vice President Jejomar Binay’s bid for the top post.
Virtual political unknown Rommel “Mel” Mendoza of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (Force of the Masses Party, or PMP) has withdrawn his candidacy and practically endorsed Binay, who is running under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), the group claiming to hold the political opposition banner, reports said.
Mendoza’s exit from the presidential race comes just two days shy of a self-imposed deadline set by the Commission on Elections for the poll body to come up with a final list of candidates in the 2016 elections.
Mendoza, a Bulacan resident, lists his experience as a “project officer” as among his qualifications for the presidency and had made several attempts to run for public office as a leader at village level. All his bids failed.
Asked for comment, insiders from UNA said they welcome the development that Mendoza had withdrawn his bid and the PMP is practically endorsing Binay.
“It is good that the PMP is now supporting a candidate,” the Gulf News source, who asked that he not be named, said.
Binay is apparently trying to distance himself from Estrada whose administration had been tainted with corruption.
The vice-president is also being accused of administrative wrongdoing, allegedly committed during his term as mayor of Makati City and sources said the last thing the presidential hopeful wants right now is to be associated with a party (PMP) identified with dishonesty.
Binay and Estrada are known to be political allies.
The source said Mendoza’s bid for the presidency and his eventual withdrawal from the race had the “blessings” of former Senator Jinggoy Estrada who has been under detention over the last two years amid allegations that he benefited from millions of pesos in largesse from Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF or pork barrel discretionary allocations).
But the same source noted that PMP remains a political force although its ability to deliver votes in this election is questionable.
Formed by then vice-president Joseph Estrada in 1998 as the political machinery that would back his presidential bid, the PMP of late has teetered on political obscurity with the reversal of political fortunes of the Estrada family.
The PMP has evolved to become identified with the Estradas.
Estrada was overthrown by a popular uprising in January 2001 after a three-year scandal-tainted presidency that saw the former actor-turn politician being slapped with a barrage of allegations and found guilty of committing the capital crime of plunder in 2008. He was pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that same year.
He ran but for the presidency in 2010, but did not succeed.
In 2013, he was elected Manila mayor.
