Palace calls to respect rights of 75 presidential aspirants

MANILA -- As provided by the Constitution, Malacanang on Thursday urged everyone to respect the rights of the 75 individuals who have filed their certificates of candidacy (COC) for president in the 2016 elections.”I think, for now, the best opinion to that is let’s respect their right to file their candidacies because their view is provided under our laws,” Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a press briefing.After the fourth day of filing, a total of 75 individuals have already filed their COCs for president, 15 for vice presidents and 83 for senator.”If we will examine our Constitution, a candidate for president should meet the qualifications and one of the requirement is that he or she must be at least 40 years old and natural born citizen,” Coloma explained.Coloma said it will be up to the Comelec to screen the applicants after the filing of COCs ends on Friday.”The Comelec has the duty and responsibility to examine if they are really qualified to the position they applied,” he said.So far, among the prominent individuals who have already filed their COCs for president are former Interior Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II, Senator Grace Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay.Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is expected to file her COC for president on Friday at 2and00 pm.In the 1992 elections, Santiago narrowly lost to former President Fidel V. Ramos and ran again in 1998 but placed 8th in the election won by former President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada.For vice president, Senators Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan II, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero and Antonio Trillanes IV and Roxas’ running mate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo have already filed their COCs.For senators, some of the big names who already filed their COCs are Senators Ralph Recto, Vicente Sotto III and Teofisto ‘TG’ Guingona III, former MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, Senator Lito Lapid’s son Mark, former senator Francis ‘Kiko’ Panglinan, congressmen Neri Colmenares and Sherwin Gatchalian, former partylist Rep. Riza Hontiveros and former senator Panfilo Lacson.