Guia glad over JV-Jinggoy reconciliation

February 14th, 12:25am February 13th, 10:13pm Neil Alcober

San Juan City Mayor Guia Gomez cannot contain her glee when reelectionist Sen. Jinggoy Estrada raised the hand of his half-brother JV Ejercito during the campaign launch of the 13 senators under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP) regional party in Pampanga the other day.

Ejercito is Gomez’s son by Joseph Estrada while Sen. Estrada is the son of the former President by his wife, Dra. Loi Estrada.

“I hope this will finally end their long-standing rift. I always say that a family should be one and united,” Gomez told reporters in an interview on Wednesday.

“I always pray that the siblings should finally settle their conflict and differences,” the lady mayor added.

Gomez said she tapped Estrada’s daughter, Vice Mayor Janella Estrada, as her running-mate in the 2016 elections as she hopes that this could be an avenue that the brothers will end up their feud.

“Sometimes it’s part of the sibling rivalry. It happens everywhere… it happens to every family,” she added.

Gomez, who is now on her third and final term as local chief executive, also said she will hold her own sorties for Senator Ejercito in the provinces.

“I will campaign for JV outside. I have to campaign for him because he’s now at the tail-end (of the recent survey) that’s why, as a mother, I will have to work for my son,” she said.

“I will have my own sorties. I will have to campaign for him on my own, like for example, I am an Ilongga maybe I will have to campaign in my province,” the mayor added, who hails from Silay City, Negros Occidental province.

She said she will have a series of campaign sorties for her son in her home province Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Capiz and Cebu.

Gomez admitted she was hurt when the Estrada partriarch accompanied Jinggoy when he filed his certificate of candidacy.

“ It’s his (Erap) prerogative whoever he wants to accompany. As a mother, of course, I was hurt,” she said.

Ejercito, who is an anti-political dynasty advocate, has been very vocal that there should be only one member of their family to vie for Senate seat.

“It’s consistent with my principles as I pushed for the anti-dynasty provision in the SK elections,” Ejercito earlier had said.

The feud between them worsened when their father decided to support Jinggoy’s reelection bid, prompting Ejercito to leave the party founded by his father Partido ng Masang Pilipino and join the Nacionalist People’s Coalition.

Ejercito and Jinggoy are also being endorsed by HnP, a regional political party of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.