MANILA-The prospective 2016 election calendar of activities may just douse the calls for President Aquino to leave office as the official countdown to the day the nation will choose his replacement is just around the corner, Sen. Ralph Recto said today.
Recto said if the timetable issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 2010 polls will be the same template for the May 9, 2016 general elections, “then election is in the air.”
“For example, the last day for filing petitions for registration of political parties will be around August 20, which is about 26 weeks away,” Recto said.
“The holding of a party convention that would select its presidential candidate could start on October 21, which is 34 Sundays from now,” he said.
And if the timetable used in the last presidential elections will guide the next, “then on November 20, a wannabe can already file his certificate of candidacy,” Recto said.
“So by December, we’ll be hearing more campaign jingles than ‘Jingle Bells,’” Recto said.
“So kung malapit na ang halalan, hindi na praktikal siguro ang panawagan na pababain ang nakaupo,” he said.
But proximity of the elections aside, Recto said “calls for the President’s resignation will not get traction.”
“If there’s a clamor, it is not for him to step down, but to step up the delivery of projects and programs he had started, so these can be completed before he leaves office.”
Another proof that the “election train has left the station” is that Congress had appropriated close to P17 billion as Comelec’s budget for this year, Recto said.
Of this, about “P12. 6 billion is earmarked for preparatory activities for the 2016 general elections,” Recto explained.
“Ganun kalaki. This is the price we have to pay for having a system which calls for elections every 1,000 days,” he said.
