For senator
I profile here some of the leading candidates for senator.
1. BenHur Abalos, 62, lawyer, is Mr. Law and Order and Mr. Rule of Law as secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
BenHur executed two of the most amazing arrests of high-profile fugitives ever by a sitting government, lending gravitas to his executive and enforcement capabilities.
The first is Alice Guo, a billionaire suspected to be behind a POGO-centered criminal syndicate and a master spy embedded into the innards of the local government by China.
The second is pastor Apolo Quiboloy, head of a cult with a claimed following of seven million and who is wanted by the US Federal government for alleged crimes related to sex abuse, human trafficking, illegal drugs and money laundering.
After the stunning arrests of Guo and Quiboloy, BenHur declared: “No man is above the law!”
Before joining the BBM government, BenHur was chair of the Metro Manila Development Authority under President Duterte, 2021 to 2022. He was a five-term mayor (2007-2016) of Mandaluyong, which he built into what he called a Tiger City geared for businesses of the 21st century and in the age of the internet of things.
2. A lawyer, Abby Binay, 48, built a caring and sharing business city. Makati today, thanks to the Ayala name and the Binay stewardship, remains the best place to do business and to live in if you have money and the gravitas that the hoi polloi do not have.
After serving as Makati congressman from 2007 to 2016, she became mayor and proceeded to transform the business district into a smart city, one almost fully digital and with free WiFi to boot.
With digital technology, Abby downloads cash and other benefits to the city’s less privileged and even the rich and famous (talk about inclusion).
Gracious, always with a ready smile, fashionable and humble (and should we say, beautiful) , Abby may turn out to be the best Binay after all.
3. Manuel “Lito” Lapid, 68, actor, counts himself as the senator with the fourth number of bills and resolutions filed in the Senate, in the 14th Congress alone.
A person with little formal education can be presented with the
