It was around past 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon when someone sent me the screenshot of the request for coverage from the camp of Isko Moreno for a press conference scheduled at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Manila Peninsula at 11 a.m. April 17.
This was followed by another advisory from the camp of Sen. Ping Lacson with basically the same message. By Saturday evening, social media was abuzz with speculation as to what the press conference was about since it now included other Presidential candidates.
We all saw the livestream of the press conference yesterday. By its end, most of the political pundits who watched were asking themselves the question what was the announcement for? Everyone knew no one was going to withdraw from the race. The surveys have been dissed by every candidate except Marcos. The latest release from Octa showed that Marcos was still leading Robredo by double-digits, throughout the country, across economic brackets.
By their own account, the candidates started talking after the first Presidential debate. Each of those present at the Peninsula related how they were approached, directly or by emissaries of Robredo, in their bid to get them to withdraw from the race.
Withdrawal is overrated. Even if all of the other candidates withdrew in favor of Robredo and assuming that their voters would obey and vote for Robredo instead, it still would not be enough to overcome Marcos’ lead.
It was also useless to accuse Robredo of being a serial liar. The people already know that she is. She was always going to run no matter what and the attempt at opposition “unity” was nothing more than lip service. The Yellow diehards were never going to allow either Moreno or Lacson to become their common candidate. In their sick heads, Robredo was the only one who can defeat Marcos and filled all their check boxes.
My friend #datachimp and I were discussing the presscon over Signal and we did a back and forth of motives. Obviously there was the intent to weaken Robredo’s candidacy. But even at that, she would not lose a significant percentage of votes. Her numbers in the survey represents her base and what she has gained in the course of the campaign. Assume 64M registered voters, with 80% turnout and 21% voter preference and you get 11.2M votes. That is about the same she got in 2016 when she “won” as Vice-President.
It is also wrong for Sen. Ping Lacson to claim that he could not believe 60% of Filipinos are Marcos Loyalists. Marcos’ voter preference is a combination of Marcos Loyalists, Duterte Diehard Supporters and millennials who are actually voting for Marcos. This is a tell-tale indicator that the continuing demolition job against the Marcos’ by the opposition did not work. The simple reason is they are the generations who were born post-Marcos and experienced the Yellow governance first-hand. They are not convinced that the Marcos’ are evil.
Hindsight is 100% correct. Former national security adviser Bert Gonzales was the man the middle of the table yesterday and looked like the conductor of the trio. Isko is one to never miss an opportunity to oversell himself and that he did, much to the chagrin of Ping Lacson. Even Tito Sotto could not do much than cover his face with his hands at one point because the seasoned political veteran in him was telling him that it was the wrong move. There was nothing to gain and some to lose.
The presscon did achieve its purpose of inflicting damage on Robredo albeit minimal. The greater damage was self-inflicted with the non-existent “sex video” of daugher Aika, which she directly accused the Marcos camp of spreading and the brouhaha cRappler was trying to get going with the reporter covering Marcos complaining of being singled out in the Batasan Hills rally where crowd control became unwieldy and Lian Buan ended up getting shoved and pushed by Marcos’ security detail, as she claims in the video which was shot by her cameraman.
One cannot discount the possiblity that it was a Bert Gonzales show with GMA in the background. You have to think, what is Bert Gonzales doing running for President when he knows he cannot even generate 1% voter preference outside of the margin of error?
Gonzales laid it on thick with his praises for Lacson yesterday. One could detect the palpable frustration of the Senator over his lack of traction in the surveys given that on paper and based on experience, he is the most qualified to become President.
You also have to wonder about the timing of the release of GMA’s memoirs where she regrets not being able to win over Lacson to her side which resulted in a politically acrimonious relationship between the two during the Arroyo administration. GMA publicly apologized to Lacson last year.
Arroyo would like to make it appear that every major event in her political career was a product of fate but I cannot help but think that each and every event was planned by her. I described her as the real kingmaker in a previous piece, which she actually is. She has been instrumental in the formation of the Marcos-Duterte ticket. She is set to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives again with the impending Marcos victory. At 75, she is not yet done with her agenda. It is clear that she has unfinished business that she wants to take care of.
It does not make sense for the Robredo camp to respond to each specific allegation leveled at her during the press conference. The damage control began yesterday and they already pulled out the gender and victim cards. This is in stark contrast to GMA who never played any of the two cards during the time she was President. She has always taken her medicine like a man.
One cannot help but think that the Easter revelation at the Peninsula yesterday was actually hatched by a woman with balls.
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