After months of negotiations and deliberations, the United Opposition (UNO) yesterday announced “the end of the Third Force” with the near completion of its list of senatorial candidates for the May 14 elections.

UNO officials announced eight of the 12 candidates in a press conference at past 1 p.m., leaving the rest of the slots to “coalition partners.”

The lineup is a slightly revised version of the roster earlier released by the opposition’s recognized leader, ousted President Joseph Estrada.

“This is the only opposition slate … In which case, there’s no room for a Third Force. With this announcement, we are ending the issue of the Third Force,” Makati Mayor and UNO president Jejomar Binay said in reference to the supposed middling senatorial lineup being formed by other groups.

Loren Legarda, a former senator and an independent candidate, is the only woman in the UNO slate composed of aspiring returnees to the Senate, graduates of the House of Representatives, and scions of politicians.

Also in the slate is Estrada’s son, San Juan Mayor Jose Victor Ejercito, who said his senatorial candidacy was “the nation’s clamor.”

But barely two hours earlier at the signing of a youth covenant at the Bahay ng Alumni building in the University of the Philippines campus, where he was asked to seek a Senate seat, Ejercito told the Inquirer: “I am elated and honored by this endorsement. However, I have not decided yet if I will run for the Senate.”

UNO spokesperson Ernesto Maceda said the other four candidates would soon be announced by partners in the Senate. (Officials said there were four sure candidates but refused to name them.)

Maceda said the remaining negotiating member-parties were still selecting four out of six contenders.

Binay added that UNO would make “a formal and official declaration of the lineup” and then engage in discussions of the coalition’s platform.

Carlo’s Blog