Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — In politics, blood may not be always thicker than water.
Case in point, the Estrada clan — which, this early — seemed to be headed for a political rift in choosing a 2016 presidential bet.
During Independence Day rites in San Juan City on Friday (June 12), Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said he was throwing his support behind Senator Grace Poe — should the newbie senator decided to shoot for the highest office of the land next year.
“You can count on me,” Ejercito told Poe, who was the city’s guest of honor. He added that his mother, San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez, would also be behind the senator.
Ejercito explained that he and Poe had gone through a lot in the Senate, even crossing party lines for a common goal like supporting the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.
Not an easy choice
Ejercito said that it was tough to make a choice between a friend and an ally, referring to Vice President Jejomar Binay and Poe.
Aside from this was the fact that his older half-brother, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, has been a known ally of Binay and there had been talks of a possible Binay-Jinggoy tandem next year.
The siblings had been at odds on several occasions, with their father — former president and now Manila mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada — patching things up for them.
In May 2014, tensions between the two brothers were renewed after Ejercito signed a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report recommending plunder charges against his kuya (older brother).
Options still open
Meanwhile, the family patriarch, Erap, had yet to decide on his plans for next year.
Mayor Estrada had earlier said that he would be torn between Binay — an ally in the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) — and Poe, the adopted daughter of his longtime pal, the late Fernando Poe Jr.
“Pag tumakbo si Grace, hindi ko pababayaan ang anak ng best friend ko,” Estrada had earlier said.
[I will back her up because she is the daughter of my best friend.]
CNN Philippines’ Anna Estanislao contributed to this report.
