It’s official: 6 candidates in vice presidential race

THERE will be six candidates in the vice presidential race in the 2016 national elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) disclosed Wednesday.

They are Liberal Party’s Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo, independent candidate Francis “Chiz” Escudero, United Nationalist Alliance’s Gringo Honasan, and Nacionalista Party’s Antonio Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Their names will be included in the initial official list of candidates.

A total of 19 people filed their certificates of candidacy for Vice President in October.

Except for the six, all the other aspirants have been previously declared “nuisance” candidates.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said the list would be final if no vice presidential candidate would pull out from the race.

The poll body was also looking at an initial list of 23 presidential and 68 senatorial candidates, and 119 party-list groups for next year’s elections, Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said.

Bautista, however, said he expected the final list of presidential candidates to be trimmed to a single digit. He explained that some who were disqualified remained on the list because they had yet to receive the official Comelec order.

“It is still high because we have not been able to serve the decision to the candidates, some of whom live outside of Metro Manila. They are in far-flung provinces,” he said during a press briefing.

The final list of candidates will be approved by the Comelec sitting en banc on Jan. 18-20.

The ballot design phase will start on Jan. 20-March 31, while ballot printing will start on March 26-April 12.