09 February 2016•Update: 12 February 2016
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA
Filipinos awoke Tuesday to walls awash with multi-colored posters and images of presidential candidates strung across streets, each signalling the start of the three-month election campaign for national positions with five candidates up for the top post.
Heading the contest are former Interior and Local Government secretary Manuel Roxas, the standard bearer of outgoing President Benigno Aquino III's Liberal Party, Grace Poe, daughter of a popular action movie star, Vice President Jejomar Binay, crimebuster Rodrigo Duterte and feisty Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.
Aquino is stepping down having served his one-term six-year limit.
The vice presidential post is a fight among five senators -- Francis Escudero, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Alan Peter Cayetano and Gregorio Honasan.
The campaign trail -- which ends May 7 -- will also see more than 50 senatorial candidates and over 100 party-list nominees vying for posts.
On Monday, the Philippines Commission on Elections announced it will keep a close eye on materials posted in places not designated by the agency along with 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," GMA News quoted Commission chairman Andres Bautista as saying.
A candidate for president or vice president may spend up to P10 ($0.21) per voter under the rules and guidelines for the 2016 elections.
With 54.4 million people registered for the May polls, spending is capped at P544 million.
On Tuesday, Binay and Honasan took to the streets of capital Metro Manila's Mandaluyong City to talk up the benefits of economic growth Binay’s office had earlier said he chose the venue “because he wanted to share with the masses his vision of a nation where rich and poor share the benefits.”
Meanwhile, Duterte, running on a crime-fighting platform, and running mate Cayetano chose Manila's slum district of Tondo.
"Tondo because it has become a symbol for a hopeful journey for change where migrants from different parts of the country started their dreams," Duterte's camp said.
Elsewhere, poll frontrunners senators Grace Poe and running mate Francis Escudero picked the old traditional political venue of Plaza Miranda, Manila, for their first appearance.
Supporters of Poe's father, the late Fernando Poe Jr., gathered on the plaza in 2004 to support his presidential bid at the height of a disqualification suit against him.
The late Poe was believed to have won the 2004 presidential election against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo but it was marred by allegations of massive fraud -- or dagdag bawas (vote padding and shaving) as it is known locally.
Roxas, the administration standard-bearer, and running mate Camarines Sur Congresswoman Leni Robredo, took to the central Philippines for their campaign launch.
Roxas popularity was placed at 20 percent in the latest election survey, statistically tied for second place with Binay (23 percent) and Duterte (20 percent), with Grace Poe on top with 30 percent).
Meanwhile, the Santiago and Marcos ticket chose the Marcos' heartland of Ilocos Norte in the Northern Philippines for their starting point -- part of the late dictator's so-called "Solid North".
