Now for the hard part
Leave it to MLQ3 to get most of it wrong. Marcos never had qualms about running for the Presidency. He did not want to get into the way of Duterte’s plans which is why he waited for what they were.
What got in the way was the diabolical plan of Alan Peter Cayetano to become either the designated successor or Vice-President at least. What got in his way was his disastrous stint as House Speaker which was the final straw Duterte would put up with from him.
It was also Cayetano’s whispering into Bong Go’s ear which led the loyal aide to establish a power base of his own with the Executive Secretary which led to the ouster of Jun Evasco from the Palace. But as the cliche’ goes, the best laid plans of mice and men eventually get flushed down the toilet and Go’s ambition went that way because he always knew that he could not win without Duterte’s support.
The President wanted a Sara-Go ticket but the stubborn daughter would not have any of this. If she ran for President, she wanted her own team around her and not go with his acolytes. Daughterte demonstrated her political will against then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez as disclosed by GMA in her memoirs. She is not one to be trifled with when it comes to getting to be too big for one’s britches.
The rift within PDP-Laban began as early as August 2020. A friend who works with the former Speaker disclosed that Alvarez quit the PDP-Laban and transferred to Reporma. The reason was the anointment of Manny Pacquiao as Acting President without Alvarez being consulted by Koko Pimentel. He was then the Secretary-General of PDP-Laban. Alvarez was contemplating a Presidential run at that time. I told the friend that it would be impossible for him to win even if he spent a fortune for name-recall. He would be more valuable backing a candidate who had a better shot at a Presidential run.
Come January 2021, Reporma already had a candidate in Sen. Ping Lacson. Tito Sotto was also in as his running mate. Renato De Villa was instrumental in making the ticket happen, along with other retired AFP officers who are against another Marcos Presidency.
Over in Manila, the newly-elected Mayor was the darling of social media and had generated a lot of buzz. His mayoralty run was bankrolled largely by Enrique Razon and partly by Ramon Ang. Ang wanted Isko to run for President. Manny Pangilinan and the Ayala’s were also backing Isko by funding his beautification projects in Manila. The digitization of City Hall was met with opposition by the old-timers but Pangilinan had committed the full support of his software development arm, Multi-Sys. Come 2020, Isko was decided that he was going to run for President.
There was no way that Leni Robredo could have united the so-called opposition without her having to give way to the qualified, competent and more popular candidate. There were initial talks between the Lacson and Isko camps but nothing came out of it because Isko wanted to President and it was non-negotiable. Robredo wanted Lacson to give way to her.
What was most laughable was the formation of 1Sambayan. No sooner had they announced their Presidentiables than each of those who had been named immediately began issuing statements that they did not want to be part of the process. It was obvious that the selection process was not objective and that in the end, it would be Robredo who would be picked as the standard-bearer of the opposition.
You all know what happened in October through November last year. Daughterte was perfectly willing to let her father and Bong Go run for President and Vice-President. Given there was no clear direction from the President, Marcos made the announcement he was running. This got the ire of the President who believed that Sara should be the Presidential candidate. Eventually, the last minute negotiations paid off and Daughterte joined Lakas where she substituted as Vice-President and was adopted by the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas as its Vice-Presidential bet.
For the first time in post-Marcos political history, the administration was not able to field a full slate of candidates even with the advantage it enjoys over the other political party’s. It is a shame considering Duterte remains popular and will have the distinction of being the most popular President in the post-Marcos era.
The bottom line is, Duterte miscalculated his daughter’s willingness to abide by his political decision. Daughterte’s stubbornness has had Duterte scratching his head as early as 2016. He has often told stories of the same nature in public. It is in the genes. The daughter struck out on her own and made her political alliances with both GMA and Marcos. She wants to be the mistress of her own fate independent of her father but acknowledging that what she has been able to achieve in her political career is all attributable to him.
The proclamation rally’s yesterday were the first benchmark for the campaign season and the Marcos-Duterte tandem emerged victorious. The image they conveyed to the public is the momentum is on their side. It was a perfectly staged event and was the most watched on livestreaming again beating their rivals with double the viewership of Robredo’s proclamation rally in Naga.
The Kakampinks will not win the Presidency. Not with Robredo’s trust rating hitting rock-bottom even before the campaign officially started. Robredo will always be a far second. The anti-Marcos constituency is not enough to put them over the top and Pink Talibans in their aggrupation make it impossible for them to convert voters to switch. They will continue to provide the entertainment in this campaign with their gaffes and faux pas.
The Lacson-Sotto campaign has been hit hard by what appears to be the informal dissolution of the NPC. None of the reelectionist Senators were in attendance at the proclamation rally in Imus. The NPC has not come up with a resolution adopting Sen. Lacson as their Presidential candidate. The reelectionist Senators were present at the Marcos proclamation rally, with the exception of Gringo Honasan and Loren Legarda. It remains to be seen what the next move will be given Sen. Lacson has indicated that they are fine with Senatorial candidates being on common tickets but not endorsing their rival candidates. All of the Senators present physically or virtually at the Marcos proclamation rally endorsed the Marcos-Duterte ticket.
There are also reports that former DILG Sec. Ronnie Puno has begged off from being the campaign manager due to differences of opinions with other campaign officials. The friction is unavoidable given the presence of former officials of the Aquino administration identified with the Samar faction in the Lacson campaign. Of late, Lacson has indicated that they would be receptive to a Presidential endorsement but Duterte has squashed that possibility the other day by categorically stating that at this point, he is not inclined to make any endorsements.
But this early, barring any fortuitous event or disqualification, the Presidency is Marcos’ to lose. I had been of the opinion that it could be a race between Marcos and Lacson come the Comelec-sponsored debate series but at this point, it becomes moot since it will all boil down to who is Yellow and who is not again. It is a shame that our politics is still based on partisanship instead of issues but I am thinking that the opposition needs to be buried by an avalanche of votes and OVERWHELMINGLY DEFEATED before this transformation can happen.
What Marcos-Duterte has proven is Filipinos are tired of the divisiveness which the opposition has wrought on this nation since 1983. Filipinos want to move forward with a direction that gives them the hope that progress and prosperity are within reach and this can only be achieved if there is national unity. It would appear now that the greater majority of Filipinos have subscribed to this and want Marcos to lead the country.
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