The battle between the two rival coalitions, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and Team PNoy, heats up as Election Day draws near.
Results of a recently conducted Pulse Asia survey presented the top 16 candidates who have a high probability of winning the election. With 11 Team PNoy candidates and five UNA bets making the cut, the country is close to deciding its new batch of leaders.
Coming together
UNA was established by two major political parties, namely Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), headed by former president Joseph Estrada and incumbent Vice President Jejomar Binay respectively. The coalition was formed through an agreement signed by Binay and Estrada on April 4, 2012.
PMP and PDP-Laban were also the proponents of the United Opposition and members of the Genuine Opposition Coalition in the 2007 Senate Elections.
Estrada and Binay were running mates in the 2010 Presidential Election where Binay won the Vice Presidential seat.
Team PNoy, led by the ruling Liberal Party (LP), is composed of the Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party (Akbayan), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Nacionalista Party (NP), and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). The coalition coined “Team PNoy” as the name of their alliance last January 26.
NPC, LDP, and LP were allies and member parties of the pro-Administration coalition Together Everybody Achieves More (TEAM) Unity in the 2007 Senate Elections.
There are currently 33 candidates running for Senate, with 9 candidates belonging to UNA and 12 under Team PNoy.
Selection
Initially, UNA considered more than 12 candidates for their senatorial slate, but eventually announced their first five candidates. They added more candidates to their lineup and saw the departure of incumbent senator Aquilino Pimentel III from the coalition due to the addition of Juan Miguel Zubiri to UNA’s senatorial slate.
Pimentel made this decision stating that, “I cannot in conscience run for senator together with Senator Zubiri” in reference to the wrong proclamation of Zubiri winning the 12th slot in the 2007 Senate Election. He soon joined Team PNoy, but remained party president of PDP-Laban.
UNA then had twelve candidates in their roster, but lost Joey de Venecia, who pulled out from the race at the last minute. Nancy Binay, daughter of incumbent Vice President Jejomar Binay, was selected as replacement by the coalition to complete the then circle of twelve.
Guest candidates Francis Escudero, Loren Legarda, and Grace Poe were later dropped from the UNA list after the three eventually chose Team PNoy, bringing the coalition’s slate down to its current lineup of nine candidates.
Team PNoy, on the other hand, began with LP considering a list of 14 possible candidates, but eventually narrowed down to four sure bets.
Months later, LP, NPC, and NP began talks of forming an Administration coalition after the three parties were on the verge of fielding similar candidates.
President Benigno Aquino soon confirmed that an agreement was made, and the final lineup of the coalition was presented in October.
The new coalition had 12 candidates from the three aforementioned parties, as well as Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros and LDP candidate Incumbent Congressman Sonny Angara.
Division
The Philippines utilizes a multi-party system where there are more than two political parties running for national positions during elections.
Coalitions are formed by major political parties, which are divided into candidates supported by the current Administration and candidates who are in opposition of the incumbent government.
Aquino previously stated that Team PNoy would echo his reform agenda in their campaigns, which follows the “Daang Matuwid” motto of the President.
UNA aims to provide a new brand of leadership with the mission of presenting “a decent and viable alternative leadership composed of men and women with known competence, efficiency and integrity”.
In the 2007 Senate elections, Genuine Opposition won majority seats in Senate, with seven candidates in the top 12, while TEAM Unity, the administration coalition, was only able to win three.
Only two candidates who belonged to neither coalition won the election.
6 replies on “Dissecting coalitions: UNA and Team PNoy”
team pnoy is looking good hitting the home stretch. latest survey shows them at 10-2 I think?
if its 10-2, then they just got a better result on the final survey. their last one was 10-3 in team pnoy’s favor. that’s very good news!
anything can happen in the actual elections but since these surverys gives us a good idea on how the results will look like. its looking very good for team pnoy.
good luck to both teams but my preference at this polnt is mostly team pnoy. what they are trying to achieve is what I hope our country will get in the next few years.
I’m happy to see team pnoy do well from start to finish. with all their hard work and vigilence, I’m sure their happy with how everything turned out.
Very informative article. Two big coalitions packed with big names (and surnames) in politics. I sometimes doubt survey results though. A surey is easier to tamper with than actual election turnout. Of the two, I prefer Team PNoy, but I’m rooting for the little guys – the independent and non-coalition candidates. They don’t seem to have high chances of winning, but I think they deserve a shot as well.