Philippine presidential candidates wrap up campaign after millions rally in capital

MANILA: Philippine presidential candidates on Saturday night wrapped up a fiesta-like campaign period of 90 days for Monday's general election that decides the next six years of this Southeast Asian country with a population of 110 million.

Over 65.8 million Filipinos will troop to 37,211 polling stations on May 9 to elect a new president, a new vice president, 12 senate senators, and over 300 members of the House of Representatives. Poll body data showed that over 18,000 national and local positions are up for grabs, according to Xinhua.

In April's final opinion poll of registered voters, former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, 64, the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, led Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo, 56, and eight other candidates.

On Saturday, the last day of the campaign period, millions of Filipinos took to the streets to support their preferred presidential aspirants.

Marcos' camp claimed that up to a million attended the miting de avance of Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Saturday night in Paranaque City in the capital region. In the Philippines, miting de advance is traditionally the final campaign event for the candidates running for local and national posts.

Marcos called for unity, saying he longs for the day when Filipinos unite to better the country. "Filipinos are starting to unite even before the election after heeding the message of our UniTeam," he told his supporters wearing red and green, the campaign colour of Marcos and Carpio, respectively.

Robredo's organisers claimed nearly 800,000 came to support the incumbent vice president and her running-mate, Senator Francisco Pangilinan, gathering at the heart of Makati City's central business district in a final show of force on Saturday.

"Let's celebrate a historic campaign tonight. Let's go! Let's win this for the Filipino people," Robredo told her pink-clad supporters.

Boxing icon-turned-senator Emmanuel Pacquiao, 43, ended his campaign in his downtown of General Santos City in southern Philippines; Manila City Mayor and former actor Francisco Domagoso, 47, in the Tondo district in Manila City; and former-national-police-chief-turned senator Panfilo Lacson, 73, in his hometown of Cavite province.

For the past three months, presidential aspirants crisscrossed the archipelago to win the hearts and minds of voters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On the campaign trail, politicians seek first to entertain voters by singing and dancing on stage and even hire popular actors to join them in the hustings.

After the crowd is entertained, they also discuss how they intend to revitalise the economy amid the lingering pandemic, reduce unemployment, and stamp out pervasive corruption.

This year, drones and livestreaming have become new features of campaign rallies. Political candidates used drones to take aerial images and videos to post on social media platforms to capture the public's attention.

"Candidates have relied more on social media for their campaigns, and voters have tapped these applications as their source for news and other election-related information," said Aries Arugay, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

-- BERNAMA