Who is the busiest presidential candidate?

Vice President Jejomar Binay seems to be the busiest among the five presidential candidates based on GMA News Online's Campaign Tracker.

The tracker contains information shared by the official campaign organizers of the candidates since the election campaign period began on February 9.

As much as we have strived to include every official campaign activity of all the candidates, we could only include in our tracker those that have been shared with us by the camps of the candidates. We have not included information about campaign sorties that we have not been alerted about.

According to our campaign tracker, as of posting time, Binay is the “busiest” as he has had 71 campaign sorties since February 9.

He is followed by former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas with 68 campaign activities; Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte with 51; Senator Grace Poe with 50, and Senator Miriam Santiago with 11.

All five candidates kicked off their political campaigns last February 9. Binay was in Mandaluyong City with his running mate Senator Gregorio Honasan.

Roxas began his campaign in his bailiwick, Capiz. Roxas, grandson of the late President Manuel Roxas, was born in Manila but considers Roxas City in Capiz as his hometown. He is a registered voter of that city.

Duterte chose to start his campaign with his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano in Tondo, Manila, despite speculations that they will choose either Davao or Taguig, their bailiwicks, as the venue for their first official political rally.

Poe began her campaign with her running mate Senator Chiz Escudero at the historic Plaza Miranda in Manila. This public square was the site of the Plaza Miranda Bombing on August 21, 1971, a year before Martial Law was declared. Nine people were killed and 95 others were injured, including prominent officials of the Liberal Party.

Meanwhile, Santiago and her running mate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had a kick-off rally at the Marcos Mansion in Batac, Ilocos Norte, a bailiwick of the Marcos family.

Marcos is the son of the late strongman President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. whose toughest political enemy happens to be the late Senator Benigno Simeon “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., father of incumbent President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III and husband of the late President Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino.

Santiago, who is recovering from Stage 4 cancer, has not only had limited campaign engagements but has also failed to participate in the 2nd Comelec-sponsored PiliPinas Debates 2016 at the University of the Philippines in Cebu last March 20.

However, Santiago did have a political engagement on Valentine's Day, when most of the candidates, except for Binay, chose to rest.

Santiago was at the Yñares Sports Complex in Pasig for the launching of the “Youth for Miriam” movement.

Binay was in Imus, Cavite for the Mega Manila Fellowship of the Pentecostal Missionary Church.

On the 30th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution on February 25, four presidential bets, except for Santiago, had official campaign activities.

Santiago's running mate is part of the Marcos family who went on exile to Hawaii on February 25, 1986 due to a popular uprising that called for the ouster of the late President Marcos.

On February 25 this year, Roxas, the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP), attended the official EDSA People Power commemorative activities in Quezon City.

Noynoy is the chairman of LP. The killing of his father Ninoy on August 21, 1983 is considered as the primary driving force for the 1986 popular uprising at EDSA.

On February 25 this year, Poe was in Abra and La Union for a multi-sectoral meeting while Duterte was in the Cebu, the most vote-rich province in the country with 2,722,288  registered voters for the May 2016 elections.

Out of the five presidential candidates, only Duterte happened to have his birthday during the official campaign period from February 9 to May 7, two days before election day, May 9.

Duterte's birthday was on March 28 and he did not have any political activity scheduled on that day. His two toughest critics and political opponents – Binay and Roxas, who have been very vocal about Duterte, did have political campaigns on that day.

Binay, longtime mayor of Makati City, the country's premiere business district, attended a Makati proclamation rally in the Pasong Tamo area of the city.

Roxas and his Team Daang Matuwid, on the other hand, met with Filipino-Chinese businessmen in Binondo, Manila. —KG, GMA News