There are 33 candidates for Senator vying for 12 seats in the upcoming May 13 elections. Some are names with political pedigree, some without. Some are worth considering, some raise eyebrows. But all of them are, as expected, promising great things and have packaged and repackaged themselves to court votes.
Francis Escudero, more popularly known as Chiz, was a former member of the House of Representative who was elected senator in 2007. He hailed from the province of Sorsogon in Bicol. His late father Salvador Escudero III was also representative of Sorsogon’s first district. Though his father was a staunch supporter of former president Ferdinand…
Juan Ponce Enrile, Jr., the only son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, is vying for a seat in the senate. The younger Enrile or Jack who is now on his fourth term (1998-2007, 2010-2013) as representative of the 1st District of Cagayan was among the top absentees in the House of Representatives. He ranked…
“I will continue what my father has started.” This is the pledge of the late action king Fernando Poe Jr.’s daughter Grace Poe who is now running for senator as an independent under Team Pnoy. Her campaign advertisement describes her as respectful and kind. Would she be an ideal senator for a country that needs…
Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, aunt of President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III, is running for the Senate under United Nationalist Alliance. Tingting is the wife of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., the brother of the late president Corazon Aquino. Tingting is not new to politics. She served as governor of Tarlac from 1992 to 1998.She was also Presidential…
Pnoy senatorial bet Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel is hoping she would make it to the top 12 this elections. She served as Akbayan Partylist Representative from 2004 to 2010, then ran for senator in 2010 but lost. Among the bills she authored that were passed into laws were Bill for Cheaper Medicines and Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program…
Pnoy team senatorial bet Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara is one of the youngest candidates running for the Senate this elections. The young Angara, son of incumbent Senator Edgardo J. Angara, served as representative of Aurora’s lone district for three terms. Angara boasts of a prolific performance as a legislator. The House of Representatives’ Legislative…
Gringo Honasan, 65, son of a military colonel, also became a military colonel himself. He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy with high honors, joined combat troops of the Philippine Army against armed Muslims and revolutionaries, and spent much of the Marcos dictatorship and a few years into the first Aquino administration’s term as a…
Ramon Magsaysay Jr, 74, is another former president’s kid who was in his late teens when his father was in Malacañang. He trained to become a mechanical engineer, a technocrat, a reserve officer of the Philippine Navy and head of his own business corporation that raked in millions from garments, tourism and cable. He studied…
Teddy Casiño’s slogan “Para sa karaniwang tao” seems to resonate in the campaign of the lone senatorial candidate of Makabayan coalition. Casiño, third poorest congressman in the 15th Congress, relied mainly on the help of volunteers and supporters, most of them ordinary people. “This is not about me. This is about the ordinary people having…
Alan Peter Cayetano, son of former senator Rene Cayetano, is running for reelection this May 13. A lawyer by profession, Cayetano first entered politics as a councilor of Taguig City in 1992. He climbed the political ladder one step at a time. He served as vice mayor from1995 to 1998. He then ran as district…