Manila, Philippinesc – The influential religious group, Iglesia ni Cristo has announced its official choice for president and vice president in next week’s elections.
For president, they are choosing Liberal-Party standard bearer, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and for vice-president, Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
The INC has an estimated command vote of 5-8 million and is one of the most anticipated endorsements in the May 2010 elections.
Manila, Philippines– Deposed president Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar are now tied for second place in the presidential race as Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III extended his lead by almost 20 points.
Despite having a double-digit margin, Aquino has expressed that he would still not be overconfident because the “ghost of Garci” continues to haunt the current elections.
Given a potential lead of eight million votes, which he considered a “significant advantage,” Aquino said only a failure of elections could thwart his imminent victory.
Meanwhile, Estrada is mighty pleased with himself because of the result of the Pulse Asia Survey. “As I told you, I will give them the surprise of their lives,” estrada said, referring to his previous interviews in which he said he would expect to peak surveys just before Election Day and win.
Asked if the game was already between him and Aquino, Estrada said: “Ah, yeah. Even my running mate. It’s no longer Mar-Loren (Aquino’s running mate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and his rival Villar’s running mate Loren Legarda). It’s already Mar versus (Estrada running mate Makati) Mayor (Jejomar) Binay,” the PMP standard-bearer said.
MANILA, Philippines — Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manuel Villar Wednesday declared that the NP was not behind any “black propaganda” on Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino his closest rival for presidency.
“I am the one swimming in black propaganda, and we are fed up with this,” said Villar, whose ubiquitous campaign jingle touts a childhood of poverty marked by “swimming in a sea of garbage.”
According to the NP bet, Guido Delgado, a former president of the National Power Corporation who released the “psychiatric report” on Aquino’s mental state was not an NP member but only a volunteer, and denied that he was behind the release of the report.
Villar however, posed the question: What if it is right?
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) on Wednesday said that in view of the yearly observance of Labor Day, the Malacanang Palace has instead declared May3,2010, Monday a regular holiday in leiu of May 1, a Saturday.
The celebrations will however proceed earlier on Saturday, May 1,2010, ont the theme,
“Manggagawang Pilipino, Kaagapay sa Pagbabago (Filipino Workers, partner in change)”, in honor of all the Filipinos workers both at home and overseas, highlighting the greater social partnership of labor with the government, management, the civil society and other sectors.
Manila, Philippines– Malacanang called on acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to review with state prosecutors his decision to drop multiple murder charges against two members of the Ampatuan clan in connection with the Maguindanao Massacre.
In a statement he issued hours after his news conference, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza directed Agra “to confer with prosecutors to ascertain if any important evidence was not considered, presented or available when his ruling was made.”
“Then the Secretary of Justice should publicly justify the final decision,” Mendoza said.
Manila, Philippines — Representatives of the Globe, PLDT, Smart, Digitel and satellite transmission providers met with officials of the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic-TIM for the signing of the contract for their services in the May 10 elections on Wednesday.
Renato Garcia, the Comelec’s IT consultant said, the three networks have agreed to provide Smartmatic-TIM a private channel which they can use for the transmission of the results from the precincts all the way to the national canvassing centers.
