Thu, 14 Jan 2010

Nicanor Perlas reinstated as Philippine presidential candidate

By NNA correspondent Walter Siegfried Hahn

MANILA (NNA) – More than a month after being disqualified, Nicanor Perlas has been officially reinstated as a candidate in the Philippine presidential elections set for 10 May.

The Philippine election commission Comelec announced in its resolution 8743 today that Perlas had been included in the list of candidates again.

Perlas, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize and pioneer of anthroposophy in the Philippines, who has just celebrated his sixtieth birthday, had been excluded from the race in December on the grounds that he was allegedly unable finance a national campaign and mobilise sufficient support.

But a worldwide online campaign quickly generated 1200 supporters who compared Perlas with Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela and Al Gore. Perlas himself organised a demonstration in front of the Comelec building on 21 December during which he submitted his petition for reinstatement in the list of candidates.

A Comelec hearing on 28 December produced today’s decision. Perlas is the only candidate to have been reinstated. This means that there are now nine candidates running for president in the Philippines.

Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, son of the national hero Benigno Aquino and the recently deceased former president Corazon Aquino, is currently leading in the opinion polls. Also doing well is former president Estrada who was forced to step down in 2001. He was subsequently convicted of plunder but was pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2007.

Another leading candidate is Manuel B. Villar who in the last three months catapulted himself to second place in the opinion polls after spending about 50 million euros (£44.5m, US$72.6m).

Whether Perlas, who has only been mentioned in the opinion polls once so far, can muster sufficient resources in the remaining four months remains to be seen. His exclusion from the list of candidates and the subsequent campaign for his reinstatement has probably created the best platform for him so far which he has used with great skill.

END/nna/wsh/cva

Links: www.nicanorperlas.com, www.truthforce.info, www.pagasa.net.ph

Item: 100114-01EN Date: 14 January 2010

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