Reports are rife that Sen. Bong Go, SBG, as he is referred to among the Palace factotums, is about to withdraw his candidacy as President any time soon. This again leaves the President with no anointed successor unless he changes his mind again and finally endorses BBM.
The Duterte administration is ending on a politically low note because of the confusion and division accompanying the formation of its tickets for the May 2022 election. It looks like the PDP-Laban is actually cursed. Recall how the same sequence of events led to then Vice-President Jojo Binay leaving the party and forming his own United Nationalist Alliance with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and former President Joseph Estrada, for his 2016 Presidential run. It has been repeated again with Rodrigo Duterte and it was he who recruited Manny Pacquiao to join the PDP-Laban from UNA.
The administration ticket isn’t even one ticket to begin with. It doesn’t have a complete Senatorial slate and its candidates at the local level are like lost sheep looking for their shepherd. More and more it’s looking like the Davao Origs and the GMA DDS screwed up big-time in thinking they could take over and run PDP-Laban without much opposition from Koko Pimentel. That didn’t happen as Pimentel pulled off his leadership coup in 2020 with the designation of Manny Pacquiao as Acting President.
This has left the administration with a weak or a non-existent ticket at all, if SBG withdraws his candidacy.
This is in contrast to 2019 when there was no rift between father and daughter yet though they both ran their own tickets under their own party’s. It remains to be seen also if the President will still pursue his Senatorial run and lead his selected candidates when the official campaign period begins in February.
What’s worse is Duterte might leave office with a tarnished legacy considering he has achieved much during his tenure. It would seem irrational that he would risk all this for SBG whose political career still has a future if only he would play his cards wisely and not resort to bulldozing his way around the political firmament.
The loyal aide who began his role as gatekeeper has now evolved to being a power broker or even a power base unto himself. He began making these moves in 2018 with Alan Peter Cayetano and Martin Andanar. His Senatorial run was premised on the treatment he received from Senators over the Korean frigate controversy but nothing in politics is unplanned. The President needed someone to keep an eye on the Senators and who better than him.
SBG has come into his own as the eminence grise beside PRRD, to the point that he became the cause of the father and daughter rift which has Daughterte and her siblings on one side, against the father and his loyal aide. This development has cast a dark shadow over Duterte just as he is about step down.
SBG is not qualified to become President no matter what Duterte says. The Presidency is not one where the main qualification is continuity under the guise of “ipagpapatuloy ko po ang nasimulan ni Pangulong Duterte” and “ang hangarin ko lang po ay mag-silbi sa Pilipino.” It’s not as simple as SBG breaks it down.
SBG represents the power bloc which wants to stay in power through the Duterte brand. This why Go-Duterte was first floated as a tandem then the President decided on Sara-Go. The viability of Go’s candidacy has been in question since it was first floated, both for President and Vice-President.
But with NPC-Reporma-NUP organized at the local level, and the BBM-Daughterte following suit with the coalition agreement signed between the PFP, Lakas, HNP and PMP, where does this leave the supposed PDP-Laban-PDDS coalition of PRRD and SBG?
Local candidates will go where campaign funds are guaranteed. This has been the tradition. SBG can tap into government resources but not without scrutiny from rivals who are still in the Legislative. The budget hasn’t been passed yet and even if SBG is thick with Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, the same is true with Daughterte.
If SBG withdraws, the race is between Lacson-Sotto and BBM-Daughterte.
Comments