AT least seven senatorial candidates will be endorsed by the opposition coalition 1Sambayan for the May 2022 elections under the tandem of Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Francis Pangilinan.
1Sambayan convenor lawyer Howard Calleja announce the line-up in an online press briefing yesterday. They are human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, labor leader Sonny Matula, incumbent Senators Leila de Lima and Risa Hontiveros, former representative Teddy Baguilat, and lawyer Alex Lacson.
“For now, I can safely say that we have seven senators endorsed by 1Sambayan,” Calleja said, adding the coalition will officially announce its line-up on January 28.
“We are still open for others. The line-up is still open to accommodate more candidates but for the 28th, we will declare those seven in our senatorial line-up together with Vice President Leni and Senator Kiko,” he added.
The 1Sambayan’s senatorial bets are also part of Robredo’s Senate slate.
Meanwhile, the printing of official ballots for the May 2022 national and local polls failed to push through anew yesterday, with the Commission on Elections pushing it to a later date.
“The printing committee, taking into consideration various technical factors, has moved the start of printing to a date yet to be announced,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.
Pressed to say when the printing can still, he said it can still start as early as today, Thursday.
The poll body assured the delays are still manageable.
“The committee assures the public that this later start will not negatively impact the Comelec’s preparations for the elections,” said Jimenez.
The original schedule for the start of the ballot printing at the National Printing Office was last Monday, January 17. The delay in the finalization of the ballot templates, however, forced the Comelec to push it back to yesterday, January 19.
The Comelec is set to print a total of 67,442,714 official ballots for the forthcoming elections.
The Supreme Court yesterday stopped the Commission on Elections from enforcing its December 13, 2021 resolution declaring Norman Codero Marquez as a nuisance candidate and cancelling his certificate of candidacy as a senator in the May national elections.
According to the SC, it found Marquez’ petition “sufficient in form and substance” and gave the Comelec 10 days to comment on the decision.
A check with SC records showed that Marquez met the same fate when he run for the senate in the 2019 elections. He challenged the Comelec ruling then and got the SC to reverse the ruling cancelling his COC. But he failed to win a Senate seat.
Marquez told the SC then that he was a resident of Mountain Province and a real estate broker. — With Gerard Naval