Riding high on a six-notch surge in the latest senatorial survey, potential United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) 2013 senatorial candidate San Juan City Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito Estrada yesterday expressed confidence that the high credibility rating of the coalition’s top three bigwigs would be enough to offset the popularity of President Aquino and the administration’s vast resources to catapult them to victory in next year’s election.
At a press briefing, JV said that while most political pundits believe that the opposition would be hard-pressed to beat the candidates of the administration given the high popularity rating of the President based on the survey results of different polling firms, plus the huge edge they enjoy in terms of resources, the high trust rating of UNA’s top three personalities who form their National Executive Council – former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile – are just what UNA candidates might need to ensure them victory in the 2013 midterm elections.
“I also have to admit that the administration candidates enjoy some edge provided by President Aquino’s high

popularity rating and the administration’s huge resources,” said JV. “In fact, you might notice that most of the administration candidates have already come up with their propaganda materials lining up the major thoroughfares compared to zero by UNA candidates.”
“But I also believe that UNA has an ace up its sleeve and that is the high credibility rating of our Big Three (Estrada, Binay and Enrile), which would be enough to offset these advantages of the administration candidates,” the younger Estrada said.
Proof of this, JV said, is the result of the latest results of the survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia showing eight to nine UNA candidates making it to the Magic 12 in the senatorial race.
JV, who, months ago, was lagging in the eight to ninth place, surged six notch higher, placing 3rd to fourth in the latest survey result, even toppling early favorite, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero from the top place in some areas. JV landed first in Mindanao.
The San Juan solon attributed his big surge to his decision to adopt the screen surname of his father, Estrada.
“We were then studying why my father and my brother (Sen. Jinggoy Estrada) were rating high, even getting 65 percent to 70 percent approval rating in Mindanao while I was only getting something around 40 percent approval rating,” said JV.
“My father then suggested that I use Estrada and so I volunteered it to the survey firms. And the result was very overwhelming as my approval rating went up by 25 percent to 65 percent,” beamed JV.
The younger Esrada also bared UNA’s line-up is almost complete with the possible inculsion of Binay’s daughter, Lourdes Nancy Binay.
“Actually, the Vice President is very much against the idea of including his daughter in UNA’s line-up. But with Nancy’s name entering the winning circle in different surveys, I think the Vice President might be finally convinced to allow her to run under the coalition,” JV said.
Aside from JV and Nancy, the other possible UNA candidates are Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay, Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile, former Senators Dick Gordon, Migs Zubiri and Ernesto Maceda, Joey de Venecia, Grace Poe-Llamanzares and Senators Loren Legarda, Gringo Honasan and Chiz Escudero.
Poe-Llamanzares and Escudero are common candidates if UNA and the administration.
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, who figured in a graft case in connection with the purchase of the property in Cebu, had backed off from the line up leaving another vacant slot. Ejercito-Estrada said that they have yet to find a replacement for Garcia.
Ejercito Estrada said that as of now UNA has only 10 candidates including himself.
Sen. Loren Legarda is said to have made a commitment to he former president and Vice President  Binay that she will be running under UNA.
“She made a commitment with former President Erap and Vice President Binay that she will be running UNA but we are still waiting for her confirmation. Most probably she will be a guest candidate,” Ejercito-Estrada said.
“We will talk about it on Monday in an UNA executive committee meeting in Vice President Binay’s office,” he said.
The San Juan lawmaker, who was in the top five in the recent Pulse Asia survey, said that the UNA is an alternative to the ruling LP coalition.
“We are supportive of the President but we are not members of the Liberal Party. We are just presenting ourselves as the alternative to the administration candidates,” he said.