Incumbents Imee, Lapid lead listup of candidacies
Former senators, nominees of new and incumbent party list groups as well as unknown individuals with unique advocacies flocked to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the second day of the filing of certificates of candidacies (COCs) and nomination papers.
A total of 10 people filed candidacies for senator, led by reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos, who is running under the Nacionalista Party.
Also filing their candidacies were former Senators Vicente Sotto III and Panfilo Lacson and releectionist Sen. Lito Lapid.
The three, who filed their candidacies together, said they will continue their legislative advocacies and refile unpassed pet bills once seated in the Upper Chamber.
Sotto said he would push for government rightsizing, budgetary reform, hybrid elections, outlawing of fake news and content and 14th month pay for workers.
Lapid said he would push for tourism jobs and his one-town, one-product advocacy, while Lacson said he will return to his role as “vanguard” and stick to his credo: “What is right must be kept right, what is wrong must be set right.”
Eleven party list groups also filed their certificates of nomination and acceptance.
Incumbent United Senior Citizens party list Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay said, if reelected, she will continue her quest for a law prohibiting and penalizing abuse of the elderly.
Former Magdalo party list Rep. Gary Alejano vowed that his group will be “productive” in the House and adopt an “oversight stance.”
Magdalo risks losing its accreditation as a party list group should it lose next year’s election for the second time. Alejano said Magdalo lost in the 2022 polls as it was a “victim of lies” of its political enemies.
One of the unknown individuals running for senator as independent is Eric Negapatan, an engineer-turned-minister who claimed he was a “houseboy” of the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Negapatan claimed to be the custodian of “800 quadrillion”—he did not specify the currency—from an undisclosed London bank which he will turn over to the government after his election as senator.
Meanwhile, in a press briefing after the close of the filing period for the day, Comelec Chair George Garcia said the poll body did not receive any report of untoward incidents in the filing venues.
Garcia said on Tuesday, the first day of filing, 3,300 aspirants filed COCs in all provinces, except in Batanes and Sarangani. On Wednesday, a candidate for vice mayor and provincial board filed COCs while one candidate filed in Sarangani.
The Comelec chair said the poll body also promulgated a resolution allowing voters in the 10 “Embo” barangays of Makati City that were annexed to Taguig City to vote for congressmen of Taguig’s first and second districts.
Other senatorial aspirants who filed their COCs as independents were Victoriano Inte, Magno Manalo, Bethsaida Lopez, Manuel Andrada and Jonry Gargarita. Other party list groups which filed their candidacies were the LGM Marketers Association, Ang Komadrona, Puwersa ng Pilipinong Pandagat, Ibalik ang Kulturang Pamana Movement, Barkadahan Para sa Bansa, A Teacher, Apat-Dapat and Abono. INQ
