Main contenders for 2016 Philippines presidency
18 hours ago
Philippine President Benigno Aquino named Interior Minister Manuel Roxas on Friday as the candidate he will support in the May 9, 2016 presidential election.
The following are the leading contenders for the post:
MANUEL "MAR" ROXAS, 58
A scion of the old, landed rich from the central Philippines' sugar-baron country, US-educated Roxas is a grandson of the country's first post World War II president, who also had the same name.
Untainted by corruption, unlike many Filipino politicians, he is a close friend of Aquino and is seen by many as a safe pick to carry the torch of the latter's reformist presidency.
Despite marrying a celebrity television presenter, the former investment banker lags behind in the polls and often comes across as bland and boring. He lost the 2010 vice presidential election to Jejomar Binay, one of his potential rivals in the upcoming election.
JEJOMAR "JOJO" BINAY, 72
Though currently leading polls, the feisty septuagenarian's popularity has recently been dented by allegations he illegally enriched himself and built a family dynasty during his 20-year tenure as mayor of Makati, Manila's financial district.
Short and dark-skinned, Binay has been described in jest as the Philippines' Barack Obama, the first black US leader. In the 1980s the self-made orphan and trained lawyer represented the victims of human rights abuses perpetrated during the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
A close ally of Aquino's late mother, the democracy icon Corazon Aquino, Binay is relishing a potential rematch with the incumbent's preferred successor Roxas, whom he beat in the 2010 vice presidential election.
MARY GRACE POE LLAMANZARES, better known as GRACE POE, 46
The former Philippine film censor was Roxas' rival for Aquino's endorsement, and toppled Binay from the top of the polls in June. US-based for over a decade until her return to the Philippines in 2004, she is seen as a refreshing new face in a country weary of corruption.
Dumped at a church as a baby and adopted by popular Filipino film action hero Fernando Poe, who died shortly after losing the 2004 presidential election, the younger Poe was a surprise top vote-getter in the 2013 senatorial ballot.
She has yet to make her views known on many major issues, and foes brand her as inexperienced. They also insist she has not lived in the country long enough to satisfy a 10-year residency rule for presidential candidates.
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