Campaign Day 1: Candidates take train, bus on Day One of campaign

A leftist party-list candidate took the bus, another took the train. An opposition senatorial bet chatted on the Internet, two reelectionist senators had lunch with journalists in a small side street eatery. The 90-day campaign period for the senatorial and party-list races is on. The election gimmicks and techniques to attract voters kicked off on Tuesday. The Partido ng Manggagawa launched its campaign by boarding public buses. Bayan Muna’s reelectionist representative, Satur Ocampo, made his first LRT ride. Women’s group Gabriela is set to sing love songs on Valentines Day. Opposition candidates Francis Escudero and detained navy officer Antonio Trillanes made use of the Internet to court voters. Administration bet Michael Defensor launched a “charm offensive" among medical students. Reelectionist senators Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan and Ralph Recto – members of the Senate’s “Wednesday Group" – met with reporters at a side street eatery in Quezon City. Arroyo and Recto are running under the administration’s “Unity Ticket" but promised to “silently" campaign for Pangilinan and Senate president Manuel Villar. Recto said he and Arroyo are “officially barred" from campaigning for their “Wednesday Group" colleagues who are “guest candidates" of the opposition. “(But) I can whisper [Pangilinan]’s name,’’ Recto said. While Villar, John Osmena and Alan Peter Cayetano launched their candidacies via television ad placements, Danton Remoto, launched his campaign in Manila universities where he talked about his pro-gay and lesbian rights advocacy. Members of the Manila Police Department, meanwhile, were busy the whole day Tuesday arresting “poster boys" who littered the streets with campaign posters and streamers. By late afternoon, the police arrested 33 supporters of Pangilinan, administration senatorial candidate Edgardo Angara and party-list groups Gabriela and Aksyon Sambayanan. Manila Mayor Lito Atienza ordered the “poster boys" released after giving a warning that charges will be filed against repeat offenders. The Commission on Elections prohibits the posting of campaign posters and streamers in areas outside the ones identified by the poll body. Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos vowed to enforce election rules that include requiring candidates and their supporters to undergo drug testing. Violation of the Comelec’s campaign guidelines or the Fair Elections Act could mean disqualification, Abalos warned. He, however, admitted he still has to penalize a candidate for refusing to follow the rules. At least two senators and a congressman refused to undergo drug testing during the 2004 elections. Abalos said the Senate president and the Speaker of the House ignored a Comelec request to hold the oath-taking of the legislators who violated election rules. Akbayan party-list Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, meanwhile, complained about an alleged move by the Arroyo administration to co-opt incumbent party-list lawmakers. She said Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. successfully formed a coalition of pro-administration party-list groups among the incumbents. Rosales said some incumbent party-list representatives “sold" their second and third seats to the administration party to stop the political opposition from getting enough seats in the House to initiate an impeachment complaint against President Arroyo in the next Congress. The Comelec recognized 44 party-list groups out of the 153 groups that applied accreditation. Abalos, however, said the party-list groups who failed to get an accreditation could appeal before the Comelec en banc, which will release the final list of accredited party-lists in the next 10 days. The 90-day campaign period, which officially opened Tuesday, will end midnight of May 13, eight hours before polling precincts open for the elections. - GMANews.TV