MANILA -- Screen veteran Ai Ai delas Alas declared her support for Vice President Jejomar Binay in the upcoming 2016 national elections, referring to him as "my president."

Delas Alas made the statement Thursday as she gave her eulogy for her biological mother, Gregoria Hernandez-delas Alas, who passed away on December 28 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Acknowledging personalities who visited the wake, delas Alas referred to Binay as "our very dear vice president and the future president of the Republic of the Philippines."

"Siya ang presidente ko sa 2016," the actress said.

Binay, who ran for vice president under the United Nationalist Alliance, has been vocal of his plans to run for president. "I have already declared right after the [2010] elections that, yes, I will be a candidate [for president]," he said in December.

President Benigno Aquino III's Liberal Party has yet to reveal its 2016 presidential bet, although Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Binay's rival in the 2010 elections, has been widely speculated to be the ruling party's future standard-bearer.

During the 2010 national elections, delas Alas was one of the high-profile supporters of Aquino III, who at the time was a senator running for the top post.

A known close friend of the president's youngest sister, TV host Kris Aquino, delas Alas also appeared in a music video released ahead of the older Aquino's presidential campaign. Kris and several other top celebrities, including music veterans Regine Velasquez and Ogie Alcasid, were also in the video.

Delas Alas, who took up public administration and governance at the University of the Philippines four years ago, has made known her plans to enter politics, once she is retired from showbiz.