Neophytes, veterans beat Comelec deadline, file senatorial bids

The senatorial race is crowded but political neophytes are confident that their experience and advocacies would be enough to help them secure one of the 12 Senate seats at stake in the May 2019 midterm elections.

Among those who beat the deadline for registration on Wednesday were former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, broadcast journalist Jiggy Manicad and election lawyer Romulo Macalintal.

They were joined by former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, former presidential political affairs chief Francis Tolentino, former Sen. Serge Osmeña III, reelectionist Sen. Sonny Angara and former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan.

Roque went against President Rodrigo Duterte’s advice, proceeding with his plan to run for the Senate. The President had earlier told him that he would lose the elections.

Roque filed his certificate of candidacy for senator as a candidate of the late Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s People’s Reform Party.

He said he decided to turn back on his previous statement that he would instead run as a party-list nominee of Luntiang Pilipinas because his “heart’s really in the Senate.”

152 senatorial aspirants

At the end of the five-day registration, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) received the applications of 152 senatorial aspirants and 182 party-list groups.

The number is lower than the 174 applicants for senator and 213 for party-list groups in 2016.

Most of those who beat the deadline were neophytes seeking wide-ranging policy reforms, from better pay and working conditions for workers to protection of the country’s sovereignty.

Though it is his first time to seek elective office, Hilbay, a candidate of the late Sen. Raul Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko, said he was not worried about the Senate race being too crowded with familiar political family names, reelectionists and administration allies.

Underdog

“I grew up in Tondo. I’m used to being an underdog. I trust in the capacity of our people to look into a candidate’s qualification,” said Hilbay, a bar topnotcher and the country’s youngest chief government counsel since Frank Chavez.

Should he win, Hilbay, who is expected to be adopted by the Liberal Party, said he would closely monitor how the government’s budget was being allocated and used.

He added that he would stand and speak up on matters that would greatly affect generations of Filipinos, such as the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.

For Manicad, his 23 years as a journalist made him very much aware of the plight of the masses. He noted that he left broadcast journalism to help fill the policy gaps in government.

Oil products

Among the causes he would push for are transparency in the acquisition cost of oil products and the passage of Magna Carta for Rescue Workers.

Manicad was earlier reported to be a candidate of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan. While he registered as an independent candidate, he said he would be adopted by Davao Mayor Sara Duterte’s regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago.

Macalintal said he would push for better benefits to fellow senior citizens, such as a 10-percent increase in the discounts allowed them for every decade that they would add to their age.

Currently, Filipinos 60 years old and above receive a 20-percent discount on certain goods and services.

Labor leaders

Labor leaders dissatisfied with how the government dealt with the problems plaguing workers also registered as candidates.

Among them were Allan Montaño of the International Trade Union Confederation and Sonny Matula of the Federation of Free Workers.

They said they would push for the setting of one minimum wage rate for the entire country and the review of the Land Use Act that would prohibit the conversion of arable land for industrial or residential purposes.

In an attempt to ensure that his electoral protest against Sen. Leila de Lima would not be junked, especially if he lost the election, Tolentino filed on Friday a motion to suspend the proceeding and archive his electoral protest “without necessarily admitting that De Lima won” in 2016.

Traditionally, when candidates with pending election protests run, their cases are considered moot if they win. Such was the case of Sen. Loren Legarda when she won in 2007. Legarda had a pending electoral case against then Vice President Noli de Castro.

The Comelec is expected to come out with a final list of candidates by Dec. 15.