National candidates kick off campaigns for 2016 elections

The race for the country’s top elective posts is on.

Beginning today, five presidential and six vice presidential candidates will hit the campaign trail in their efforts to become the Philippines’ top leaders for the next six years.

Also expected to start wooing the electorate are more than 50 senatorial candidates and over 100 party-list nominees.

The official campaign period for national candidates will run for 90 days from Feb. 9, Tuesday, to May 7. Election Day is on May 9.

On the eve of the start of the campaign period, the Comelec said it will keep its eye on poll materials posted in places not considered designated poster areas, as well as on campaign spending.

"The meter starts to run in respect of their expenditures, so the Campaign Finance Unit, led by Commissioner [Christian Robert] Lim, will now monitor the expenses in respect of advertisements, in respect of campaign paraphernalia being used," Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista said in a news conference on Monday.

[LOOK: Infographic on prohibited acts during campaign period, Election Day]

Based on the implementing rules and guidelines for the 2016 elections, a candidate for president or vice president may spend up to P10 per voter.

With 54.4 million registered voters for the May polls, the spending cap for these candidates will be at P544 million.

The Comelec will also monitor airtime for candidates, particularly advertisements.

Each candidate is allowed 120 minutes of TV ads per originating station basis, and 180 minutes per originating station basis for radio.

Binay-Honasan

The presidential and vice presidential tandems and their respective senatorial slates are expected to present their platform and programs before the public in kick-off rallies to be held in different parts of the country.

Opposition standard bearer Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senator Gregorio Honasan II will be holding their proclamation rally on Nueve de Pebrero Street in Mandaluyong City at 4 p.m.

Binay’s office earlier said the Vice President chose to start his campaign in the area “because he wanted to share with the masses his vision of a nation where rich and poor share the benefits of economic growth.”

United Nationalist Alliance spokesperson Mon Ilagan said Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos requested that the opposition party hold its kick-off in the city, which is at the center of Metro Manila.

Duterte-Cayetano

Tondo, meanwhile, will be the first stop of the tandem of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday.

Duterte’s camp said the duo chose Tondo because it has become "a symbol for a hopeful journey for change where migrants from different parts of the country started their dreams."

Poe-Escudero

Survey frontrunners senators Grace Poe and running mate Francis Escudero will be starting their campaign in Plaza Miranda, in Quiapo, Manila from 4 pm to 7 pm.

It was in Plaza Miranda where supporters of Poe's father, the late Fernando Poe Jr., gathered in 2004 to support his presidential bid at the height of a disqualification suit against him.

Plaza Miranda was also where Poe launched her 2013 senatorial bid, along with Escudero and other candidates of the administration coalition. Poe eventually topped the senatorial race with 20 million votes, while Escudero placed third.

Roxas-Robredo

The administration standard bearer, former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and his running mate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, on the other hand, will formally launch their campaign in the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo.

Capiz is the home province of Roxas, who represented the first district of Capiz in Congress from 1993 to 2000. Iloilo, meanwhile, is the home province of Senate President Franklin Drilon, a vice chairman of the ruling Liberal Party.

According to GMA News Research, Iloilo ranked eighth on the list of provinces with more than one million potential voters for the 2016 elections.

The average voter turnout in the province is 79.62 percent, almost four percentage points more than the national average of 75.74 percent.

In the 2013 elections, Iloilo was also eighth in the election turnout among vote-rich provinces, with 1,053,303 casting their votes out of the 1,270,100 registered voters in the area.

Roxas, with 20 percent, is statistically tied for second place with Binay (23 percent) and Duterte (20 percent) in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

Santiago-Marcos

The tandem of Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will go to the latter’s bailiwick in Batac, Ilocos Norte to kick-off their campaign.

A 9 a.m. Mass at the Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion Church will precede the tandem’s kick-off rally at the Imelda Cultural Center. They are also scheduled to deliver speeches and preside over a press conference at the Don Mariano Marcos State University.

Santiago will go back to Metro Manila right after the proclamation while Marcos will continue campaigning in northern Luzon for the rest of the week.

Santiago, who is battling cancer, is far behind in the presidential race with only four percent based on the latest Pulse Asia survey. Marcos, on the other hand, is at second place with 23 percent. –with a report from Trisha Macas/NB/RSJ, GMA News