1Sambayan fills out 24 slots in its unofficial senatorial slate for 2022 polls

Screenshot of former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio during the launch of 1Sambayan

MANILA, Philippines — The leading opposition group 1Sambayan has completed its senatorial slate for the 2022 elections, but lead convenor and former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio has yet to make the list official.

In a media forum Wednesday, Carpio said there are currently 24 names in their unofficial list, many of them re-electionist, but this number may still be trimmed down to 14.

Carpio said a final senatorial slate cannot be decided until the coalition already has a final presidential nominee.

“We have about 24 names that were nominated for our senatorial slate. Many of them are re-electionists,” Carpio said.

“We’ll probably reduce that to about 14 because as we said, we will consult our presidential candidate before we finalize so there will be a leeway for the presidential candidate to trim down also,” he added.

The 1Sambayan coalition, which seeks to challenge the Duterte administration in next year’s elections, earlier released the shortlist of its possible presidential and vice presidential candidates.

The list included Vice President Leni Robredo, Senator Grace Poe, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, House Deputy Speakers Vilma Santos-Recto and Eddie Villanueva, and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno.

Poe, Santos-Recto, Villanueva, and Diokno have already declined the nominations.

Carpio on Wednesday said the nomination process is still ongoing, adding that some candidates are delaying the announcements of their bid due to possible attacks from “trolls” of the Duterte administration.

EDV