The United Nationalist Alliance senatorial candidates would like to be known as the alternative, not the opposition bets in 2013, Former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said yesterday.

It is unlikely that a UNA-Liberal Party super coalition will happen since Malacañang has already shot down the proposal of San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito, he explained.

If you look at the UNA lineup only one is a true oppositionist, Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay, he said.

“You cannot say I’m opposition because I do not hit at the president,” he said.

Other UNA senatorial bets like Rep. JV Ejercito, Rep. Jack Enrile, Joey de Venecia, Former Senator Richard Gordon, and Senator Loren Legarda also cannot be called oppositionists, he said.

Zubiri said he was saddened that Senator Koko Pimentel opposed his joining UNA, because he has no fight with him.

“Politics should never be personal, it should be issue based,” he said.

CHA-CHA

Zubiri also said that, while he is for charter change, it should not be done before the 2013 elections because it could be misinterpreted.

However, it can be done before President Benigno Aquino’s term ends because he has a high trust rating and the people know that he will not abuse it, he said.

Zubiri said he is for political and economic reforms in the Constitution.

Each region of the country should have two senators each, to ensure equal representation, he said.

“CORPORATIZATION”

Meanwhile, Zubiri said he is against the corporatization of government hospitals as proposed by Bacolod Rep. Anthony Golez in House Bill 6069.

“I will march in the streets against it…I will never agree to that,” he added.

“Their idea under corporatization is to make hospitals a corporation, to be run like a private institutions, I will never agree to that…because the poor will be the ones who will suffer,” he added.

In Singapore and HongKong their hospitals are run better than their private hospitals, he added. If they can do it, we can do it, let us have faith in government service, he said.*CPG

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