Let us hope we will have a real choice in 2016
ARECORD 130 individuals filed certificates of candidacy for president with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last week, along with 19 for vice president and 172 for senator.
Many blame this situation on the fact that the Constitution has only the barest requirements to qualify a presidential candidate – a natural-born citizen, registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years old and a resident at least ten years before the election. Comelec officials welcome the 130 presidential aspirants as a sign of a vibrant democracy.
The Comele has a job on its hands – how to trim the list of 130 to the truly serious and legitimate candidates. It should be easy enough to eliminate those who just want to call attention to themselves with the most outlandish causes, like a convenience store at every street corner. Then there are some with just causes – greater government attention to agriculture, for example – but with no means to ran any campaign.
There are those who see an opportunity to make some money from the election, waiting for someone to pay them off to withdraw. And then there are those who are part of the “dirty tricks” department of one party or group.
Ultimately, there may be only four serious presidential candidates with the means to carry out a nationwide campaign – Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party, Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, independent Grace Poe, and Miriam Defensor Santiago. There was hope that Rodrigo Duterte would also run for president, but he finally decided to seek reelection as mayor of Davao.
Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has repeatedly warned he would want to run for president if, in the course of the campaign, there should be only one candidate left standing after the other contenders have all been eliminated by disqualification or by other legal machinations. It must not come to this; that would indeed be a low point in our political history.
We hope Mayor Estrada’s fears do not come about and that we will have a lively election campaign highlighted by the presidential debates scheduled by the Comelec and the meetings in streets and other public places all over the country.
By election day on May 9, 2016, the people will go to the precincts to vote. Let us all hope that they will have the opportunity to make a real choice for president of our country.