Eleven presidential aspirants are now on the current tentative list of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 2022 polls.
Based on the list as of Wednesday, the aspirants that made it are, in alphabetical order, Abella, Ernie; Arcega, Gerald; De Guzman, Leody; Domagoso, Isko Moreno; and Gonzales, Norberto.
Also on the list are Lacson, Ping; Mangondato, Faisal; Marcos, Bongbong; Montemayor, Jose Jr.; Pacquiao, Manny Pacman, and Robredo, Leni.
For vice presidential aspirants, there are nine names — Atienza, Lito; Bello, Walden; David, Rizalito; Duterte, Sara; Lopez, Manny SD; Ong, Doc Willie; Pangilinan, Kiko; Serapio, Carlos; and Sotto, Vicente.
On the other hand, the tentative number of senatorial aspirants is now at 64.
The poll body has yet to come up with the final list of national and local candidates, including party-list groups, since there are still pending cases as to their respective candidacies.
Meanwhile, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas standard-bearer and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. is now the only presidential candidate with surname Marcos.
The Comelec’s list of aspirants updated as of January 4, 2022, showed Marcos as presidential candidate number eight, long regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture.
The list started with 97 presidential hopefuls and was whittled down to 15 before Christmas.
Its current number stands at 11 even as the poll body previously removed four potential candidates who were all deemed nuisances.
Among those struck from the list is Maria Aurora Marcos, a businesswoman from Tarlac, who filed her candidacy for president last October.
Meanwhile, Tiburcio Marcoswas removed by the Comelec from the list before December 25, 2021.
Various groups have filed seven petitions with the Comelec to derail Marcos Jr.’s candidacy in the 2022 national polls.
The Comelec recently denied the petition filed by declared nuisance candidate Tiburcio Marcos, which sought to cancel Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Certificate of Candidacy (CoC).
Tiburcio alleged that Bongbong is an impostor. Comelec announced it had junked the petition on January 4, 2022.
Another petition, filed by Danilo Lihaylihay, sought to declare Bongbong as a nuisance candidate only to be junked by Comelec on December 16, 2021.
The BBM-Sara UniTeam has consistently earned Filipinos’ trust and support, shown by their stellar performance in non-commissioned presidential and vice-presidential preference surveys conducted by reputable polling firms.
In the latest pre-election polling conducted by OCTA Research, Marcos Jr. led all the presidential aspirants as he garnered 54% of the votes in the presidential preference survey.
At the same time, his running-mate Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte is the clear choice as VP after she received 50% of votes in the vice-presidential race from the 1,200 respondents.
Both candidates have been busy providing help in areas recently hit by Super Typhoon Odette.
The BBM-Sara UniTeam has mobilized its network of volunteers to provide relief goods, cash assistance, much-needed water filtration units, and satellite broadband communication equipment to the hardest-hit areas.
The BBM-Sara UniTeam also recently suspended its caravans and political activities to ensure the safety of its supporters and the public as the cases of new Covid19 cases rise due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Marcos and Inday Sara are urging the public to get vaccinated or get booster shots whenever able and comply with the guidelines of the IATF to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.