GETTING WET. Binay wades through floods with Mayor Pelayo and his son Patrick during a relief operation and inspection of still-flooded Barangay San Agustin on Monday. Photo by Ric Gonzales
CANDABA, Pampanga – Vice President Jejomar Binay said that he and President Aquino are in good working relationship, adding that politics “is not a priority now.”
The vice president issued the statement after he was asked by Punto Central Luzon of the actions and treatment to him of Aquino less than two months before each of them are set to officially name their respective 12-man slate for senators who will seek a six-year term starting 2013.
Binay said he and Aquino “are working and focused” on the permanent solutions to the perennial flooding in Pampanga and other provinces in Central Luzon.
“I will be a hypocrite if I say I will not run for president (in 2016). But what’s important is that we first work now,” said Binay.
He was in Pampanga on Monday to visit areas hit hard by the recent torrential rains that flooded 395 barangays.
Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo and other town officials welcomed and accompanied Binay when the vice president distributed relief goods to residents of Barangay San Agustin, one of the three villages of Candaba which remained flooded.
They were joined by businessman Patrick Pelayo, eldest son of the three-term mayor. The younger Pelayo is eyeing the post of his father .
Mayor Pelayo said all of the town’s 33 villages and more than half of their total population of 110,000 had been affected by floods spawned by strong rains that started on August 6. The torrential rains lasted for at least four days.
Binay, who got the most number of votes in Candaba among the vice presidential candidates in 2010, also gave relief goods to residents of Sto. Tomas, San Simon, Apalit and San Luis, all of the province’s fourth district.
On Monday morning, Binay also distributed calamity loans to Pag-Ibig members in Pampanga affected by the recent floods.
