Road to Malacañang starts here
The top four presidential contenders—Grace Poe, Rodrigo Duterte, Jejomar Binay and Mar Roxas. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
One will go on a sentimental journey to his political and family roots, another will launch his bid in the company of the poor people he claims to love. A third will hold his in the lair of the criminals and the drug addicts he intends to wipe out, another will summon the spirit of the dead dictator in the latter’s hometown and finally, the one whose candidacy is still a hoped-for miracle will hold hers, fittingly enough, in a church plaza.
Campaigning for the 2016 presidential election officially opens on Tuesday and the five presidential candidates are making sure their inaugural launches are impactful while also being true to what they stand for.
The ruling Liberal Party’s standard-bearer Mar Roxas returns to his family’s political roots in Roxas City for the lift-off of his campaign to become only the second member of the Roxas family of Capiz to rise to the presidency.
With President Benigno Aquino III leading the administration contingent, Roxas and his running mate, Leni Robredo, along with the LP senatorial lineup, will roll out their campaign at a proclamation rally that will take place in two cities in Roxas’ Western Visayas bailiwick.
The first event will be on Tuesday morning at the 6,000-seat Capiz Gymnasium in Roxas City, and the second will unfold in the evening at Freedom Park in Iloilo City, according to Roxas’ staff.
“He wants to start the campaign by going back to his roots—the hometown where he first started his career in public service,” said LP coalition spokesperson Barry Gutierrez.
Roxas, an economist by training who worked as an investment banker before going into politics, began his political career as an elected representative of Capiz’s first district, replacing his younger brother Dinggoy, who died of colon cancer in 1993.
Though Roxas was born in Manila, he continued the political line of succession in Capiz, following in the footsteps of his brother, his father, former Sen. Gerardo Roxas, and his grandfather and namesake, Manuel Roxas, the country’s fifth President who served from 1946 until his death in 1948.
Gutierrez said Roxas’ choice of Capiz to launch his campaign also showed how much he wished to give attention to smaller provinces should he become President.
Very active P-Noy
“The choice of Capiz as the kickoff venue is also indicative of his commitment to turn the attention of his campaign, and eventually his government, not just to the big urban centers or larger provinces, but to the whole country,” he said.
According to a tentative schedule provided by his staff, the LP delegation will hold a press conference at 8:30 a.m., followed by the proclamation rally in a gym at 10 a.m.
After a quick lunch, the delegation will head to Iloilo City for the 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. launch.
In a press forum earlier this week, LP spokesperson Edgar Erice said the President would be a constant presence on the campaign trail.
“The President will be very active because he has so much at stake to continue what he has started. Not only will he be active—he will be very active,” Erice said.
With the poor
Vice President Jejomar Binay will hold his proclamation rally “in the company of the masses” in Welfareville Compound, a vast urban poor community in Mandaluyong City, so-called because the government-owned compound is under the administration of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Vice President Binay wants to launch his campaign with ordinary Filipinos who have been left behind and continue to struggle with poverty, hunger and unemployment,” said Joey Salgado, who heads media affairs in Binay’s office.
“The Vice President chose to hold his proclamation rally at Welfareville because he wants to share with the masses his vision of a nation where rich and poor share the benefits of economic growth,” he added.
Binay’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. Gringo Honasan, will be joining the rally along with the United Nationalist Alliance’s six senatorial candidates—Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, Parañaque Councilor Alma Moreno, lawyer Allan Montaño, former Special Action Force head Getulio Napeñas, broadcaster Rey Langit, and Princess Jacel Kiram, eldest child of the late Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III.
Some of UNA’s guest senatorial candidates—Susan Ople, Sen. Tito Sotto, former Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon, and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez—are also expected to come, but details have yet to be firmed up, Salgado said.
Criminals, drug addicts
After the proclamation rally, the Binay party will move to Cavite and Laguna provinces where he will “present his platform of government anchored on uplifting the lives of the people, something that he has done in Makati,” Salgado said.
Though their campaign will kick off with simultaneous events in six cities and provinces, the team of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano will personally appear at a rally in Tondo, Manila, the alleged lair of criminals and drug addicts.
Duterte, who is running on a strong anticrime platform, has vowed to wipe out criminality and the drug menace in the first six months of his presidency.
“The program in Tondo will be beamed live in six other areas in the country to ensure the widest reach of people who could then listen to their platform of government,” said a source in the Duterte campaign who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak to the media.
Duterte’s children will be representing him in a simultaneous launch in Davao, while Sen. Pia Cayetano will represent the team in Bacolod City.
“The other four areas are still being debated,” the source said.
Duterte said in a telephone interview that Sen. Koko Pimentel, the president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan party under which he is running (PDP-Laban), was the one who planned the events and chose Tondo for the launch.
“I just follow Koko’s plan, I had no participation in choosing the places to hold our sorties. I trust their judgment,” Duterte said.
Pimentel, in a text message, explained that Tondo’s being perceived as the lair of criminals and drug addicts had nothing to do with its being chosen as a venue for the launch.
“Holding the proclamation rally in Tondo is a political and practical decision because of our partnership with mayoralty candidate Amado Bagatsing, it has nothing to do with it being perceived as lair of criminals and drug lords,” he said.
Prayerful Poe
Despite the still-to-be-decided disqualification cases against her, Sen. Grace Poe is going ahead with the launch of her presidential campaign on Tuesday. She has chosen Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila, the setting for both entertainment events and historic political speeches.
But the choice of Quiapo is significant for Poe not just historically but also personally because Quiapo Church is where she often goes to to pray, said Poe’s spokesperson Rex Gatchalian.
“Like most Filipinos, Senator Poe is a prayerful person. She has been going regularly to Quiapo Church to pray—when confronted with challenges, when thanking God for the goodness in her life, when seeking guidance and protection,” he said.
Though Poe could yet be disqualified from running if the Supreme Court hands down an unfavorable decision on the citizenship and residency questions surrounding her candidacy anytime now, all the necessary permits have been secured for a proclamation rally at Plaza Miranda on Tuesday where she will “offer a glimpse into her presidency,” according to Cebu Rep. Joseph Ace Durano, campaign manager of Partido Galing at Puso.
The kickoff rally will offer a vision of the kind of governance Poe will have, which would be one that would have heart and compassion, not just competence, Durano said.
Poe will be joined by running mate Sen. Francis Escudero and their senatorial candidates. It was also in Plaza Miranda that Poe and Escudero launched their 2013 campaign for the Senate. They ran as guest candidates in the slate of President Aquino.
Durano said the disqualification cases hanging over Poe would not put a damper on the Plaza Miranda gathering.
“It’s a reality, but at the same time we’re very positive that before the elections or during the progress of the campaign, this will be resolved in our favor,” he said.
He said they have been encouraged by the arguments so far in the Supreme Court hearings, particularly the opinions expressed by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Justice Marvic Leonen, which he said affirmed that the Poe camp’s understanding of the Constitution is correct.
North-South coalition
Poe has been disqualified by the Commission on Elections on the ground that she is not a natural-born Filipino and has not met the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates. She brought a certiorari motion against the Comelec before the Supreme Court.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and her running mate Sen. Bongbong Marcos will officially launch their campaign in the Batac, Ilocos Norte stronghold of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Santiago and the late dictator’s son will appear together in public for the first time as a team at the Marcos Mansion, the family residence that adjoins the mausoleum housing the elder Marcos’ remains.
The dictator died in Hawaii in September 1989, three years after the February 1986 People Power Revolution that brought down his 20-year dictatorship.
His widow, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, has decreed that his remains will remain in a glass coffin until he can buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Santiago decided to officially kick off her campaign with Bongbong in the latter’s hometown rather than her own Iloilo City to underscore their “North-South” coalition.
“She is a strong political force from the South and she will launch her campaign with a running mate who is a strong political force in the North,” said Santiago’s media relations chief Arveen Patria.
Santiago and Marcos will face the media at the Marcos Mansion at 10 a.m., then proceed to Mariano Marcos State University, the biggest campus in the Ilocos region, at 11:30 a.m.
Santiago has chosen to speak at the campus because “this shows her strength among the youth,” Patria said.
Santiago, who is making her third bid for the presidency since 1992, has admitted to being treated for advanced lung cancer although she said her cancer has now been arrested.
However, she has made only a handful of public appearances since she filed her candidacy certificate last October.
Although he had said he would be Santiago’s running mate, Bongbong was reported to have sought Duterte’s anointment as his running mate when he belatedly decided to run for President. In the event, Duterte chose Cayetano.
RELATED STORIES
Palace to UNA: No plan to hijack polls
Escudero denies betrayal rumors: ‘Poe is safe with me’
