MAY 2016 is the first time in Philippine electoral history to have more vice presidential candidates than full and complete tandems. In this COC filing week, there are five vice presidential candidates, four with tandems and two solitary runs. The tandems are Binay-Honasan, Roxas-Robredo, Poe-Escudero and Poe-Trillanes. The solitary runs are Cayetano and Marcos.
The vice president is a spare tire in our tradition. He waits until the president is incapacitated, dies or impeached. If such event happens within 2 years and 6 months of the term, the vice president can run for another term, or a total of 9 years, just like what GMA did in 2004, after Erap was dislodged less than three years in his six-year term. Traditionally, Filipino voters pick split tickets in voting for president and vice president. The only instance Filipinos voted for one single ticket was during Aquino-Laurel in Edsa and Arroyo-De Castro in 2004. Then we had Ramos-Estrada, Estrada-Arroyo and Aquino-Binay, all splits.
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