Tag: 2010 elections

by Andreo Calonzo, GMANews.TV

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday approved the candidacies of environmentalist Nicanor Perlas and detained former Army general Danilo Lim, reversing an earlier decision excluding the two from the official list of candidates in the May 10 national elections.

Through Resolution 8743, the Comelec en banc announced that presidential aspirant Perlas and Liberal Party senatorial bet Lim have been included in the final list of candidates for the elections.

Perlas’ entry in the presidential rase raises the number of candidates vying for the highest electoral post in May to nine.

by Lito Banayo
Malaya

The last reputable surveys done after the filing of certificates of candidacy show three presidential candidates at the top: Noynoy Aquino in the mid to high forties, Manny Villar and Erap Estrada in a virtual tie at 20 or 19 percentage points. And Gilbert Teodoro, the man anointed by the once humongous Partido Lakas-Kampi founded by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, incumbent and long-staying president of the benighted republic, at low single-digit numbers. The rest are also-rans, at 1 percentage point or even lower.

Why the regime’s anointed is languishing at bottom lows, despite the vaunted party machinery, the well-placed ads projecting competence and intelligence (“galing at talino”), and despite inarguably better speaking and debating skills than the competition, is attributable to the public belief that he is “Gloria’s man”, the chosen “one”, the person she deems most fit to succeed and most acceptable to her. Unfortunately for him, the person who chose him above all else happens to be most distrusted by the population. That distrust for his patroness drags Gibo down, never mind his personal qualities. It carries over to his persona, reinforced in no small measure by his having expressed not only the usual paeans of gratitude, but a public admiration for her “ many achievements”, something clearly the people do not share. To do a volte face at this time will no longer be credible. Gilbert Teodoro’s chances are thus virtually nil. Even Ronaldo Puno’s vaunted skills cannot resurrect flagging hopes. Nor Virgilio Garcillano’s magic make the trick. Perhaps if Norberto Gonzales succeeds in discombobulating everything and upsetting the applecart of elections… perhaps, but that’s a big IF, and assuming the guy and his patroness can pull it through, will the people ever be so supine as to take such adventurism lying down?

Update: SWS’s December 09 survey also puts Aquino in the lead

With less than five months before the May 10, 2010 elections, Liberal Party presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino maintains his sizable lead even as three other contenders improved their numbers, Pulse Asia’s December 2009 survey showed.

Pulse Asia asked 2,000 respondents last Dec. 8 to 10, “Of the people in the list, whom would you vote for as president of the Philippines is elections were held today?” In the list were Aquino, Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party, Joseph Estrada of Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, Gilbert Teodoro of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan, and Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas.

Aquino got 45 percent, one per cent higher than his October 2009 score of 44 per cent; Villar, 23 per cent, four per cent higher than the 19 per cent that he got last October; Estrada , 19 per cent, an eight per cent increase from his previous 11 per cent.

Click here (Pulse Asia) for its complete December 2009 survey.

Pulse Asia said Villar and Estrada are statistically tied for second place owing to the survey’s margin of error.

Brig. Gen.Danny Lim strongly protests his disqualification as senatorial candidate in the 2010 elections as “baseless and unconstitutional.”

“Despite the fact that I have been adopted by three major parties, climbed the survey ratings, received thousands of volunteers and endorsements, it is their tainted opinion that I have not proven that I could campaign, much less win in these elections and thus has included that I am no more than a nuisance candidate,” Lim said in a statement issued from his detention quarters in Camp Crame.

In Resolution 8713, Lim and 99 other candidates for senator including Ang Ladlad president Danton Remoto, who registered as “independent” were disqualified by Comelec for not having shown the capacity to wage a nationwide campaign.

Lim has been adopted guest candidate of the Liberal Party and Partido ng Masang Pilipino.