NUP shows up for Mar, but still ‘sitting on the fence’

Despite showing up in full force for a meeting called by Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, the Nationalist Unity Party (NUP), the third largest political party in the country, remained open to the possibility of throwing its solid support to any of the three other personalities whose names have surfaced as possible presidential candidates in 2016.

NUP Executive Director Reginald Velasco made this disclosure even as he admitted that the camp of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero has arranged an invitation for a conference between them and the NUP.

Velasco said Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Jejomar Binay, a declared presidential bet, will also be given the same opportunity to present their program of government if they win the presidency.

“We will decide during our convention in September. In the meantime, we will listen to anybody who would want to talk with us,” said Velasco.

Roxas’s invitation for meeting was attended by a large group of NUP members but majority remained tentative on whom they would ask the party to support in 2016.

Velasco admitted that Poe also has a following of loyal supporters within the NUP which boasts of 30 district congressmen, 19 party-list congressmen, nine governors and a number of city and municipal mayors. (Ben R. Rosario)