Former Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Wednesday night announced that he will be seeking a return to the Senate in the upcoming May 2022 national elections.
Estrada made the announcement during his online press conference on Wednesday night.
This means Estrada will again face off with his half-brother, former Senator JV Ejercito who is also seeking a return to the Upper Chamber. Ejercito announced his senatorial bid last Friday, September 24.
Estrada said he will be running under the banner of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), the political party of his father former President Joseph Estrada.
The former lawmaker said he will strive to continue his advocacies and that of his father.
Asked if he is comfortable gunning for a Senate seat with Ejercito, Estrada said he welcomes his brother’s senatorial bid and hopes that both of them would make it to the Senate.
“I hope what happened to us in 2019 elections will not happen again. I pray that both of us will win because public service is both in our blood,” Estrada said.
Estrada said he hopes both of them would finally set aside any animosity between them and that they would “just campaign on our own platform.”
At the same time, Estrada said he hopes that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will finally decide to run for president in the next year’s polls.
According to him, as a party official of the PMP, he has already agreed to forge an alliance with Duterte-Carpio’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).
“She said she will be running for reelection in Davao but I am still hoping that she will run for the presidency, so that our alliance will happen,” Estrada said.