📷 On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, the Makabayan Coalition’s senatorial and party-list candidates begin their campaign in the Kartilya ng Katipunan in Manila. (Koalisyong Makabayan | FB)
The 90-day campaign period for national candidates kicked off Tuesday, with would-be senators to play a crucial role in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Twelve seats are open for Senate bets, while 254 House representatives and thousands of candidates will contest local positions.
Campaign for House seats and local positions will start next month, with over 18,000 posts to be filled in the May 12 mid-term polls.
At least 16 votes in the 24-seat Senate are needed to convict Duterte who was impeached by the House of Representatives last week on charges of “violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.”
“The composition of the next Senate will be crucial” to Duterte’s conviction, according to Dennis Coronacion, head of the political science department of the University of Santo Tomas.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has warned that it will disqualify candidates violating campaign rules, including illegally posting campaign materials, especially along EDSA, and using paraphernalia made of single-use plastics.
Violators will face election charges, Comelec Chair George Garcia said.
Police are also investigating 12 incidents of possible “election-related” violence, including the shooting death of a candidate for a local post.
Police spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo disclosed they were monitoring three to five “private armed groups” supporting politicians in the provinces.
“These can do a lot to… harass candidates or worse, create violence to influence the outcome of the election for a certain area,” Fajardo was quoted as saying at a press conference last week. (WILMA M. YAMZON)
