‘I have found it too early to commit because I know very little about almost everyone who has declared or hinted about wanting to run, and it matters greatly to me that I believe in the person and in the track record of whoever is going to get my vote.’
IT’S nine months from the presidential elections of 2022 and still about two months from the official date of filing of candidacies, but politics is in the air. I guess like we do for Christmas we Filipinos love to extend holiday seasons and even campaign periods.
Even if unofficially, because you still can’t say “vote for me” but you can put up giant billboards along SLEX with such slogans as “Panalo pag may Pagbabago.”
I agree with that billboard’s message 100% and that’s why the person in that billboard will not get my vote. That’s how I intend to ensure that there will be “pagbabago.”
Like many (most?) Filipinos, I am part of a number of social media groups engaged in chatter about next year’s polls. Most of the groups are uniform in their biases, but still exhibit some differences in how the biases impact their choices for 2022. There are the solids for Leni, and there are the liquids for Leni, too (ha-ha). There are the solidly anti-enablers, and there are the more forgiving. There are those who will vote for anyone who is likely to win: there are those who will vote for whoever can stop the candidate of the administration (be it Sara or CBG), and there are those who will vote only for their chosen candidate, win or lose.
The question I am asked most often in these exchanges is if I have committed myself to a candidate already. And my answer is simple: No. I have found it too early to commit because I know very little about almost everyone who has declared or hinted about wanting to run, and it matters greatly to me that I believe in the person and in the track record of whoever is going to get my vote.
The ability to sing, or dance, or crack jokes is something I do not consider as important elements of an aspiring politician’s track record.
Years ago, a good friend and colleague was gushing over a city mayor and how this man is a potential presidentiable. The city mayor was Jesse Robredo, and my colleague was telling me how Robredo seemed to have the right qualities for a good president. I regret that I never had a chance to meet the mayor, but yes, looking to an LGU leader as a potential presidentiable is not a bad thing because what is the president but the “mayor” of the country?
This is also why the idea of a Duterte as president was appealing, because we were aware of “the Davao story” with all its lights and shadows, and in the main people were generally receptive to it, accepting if not justifying whatever was being done outside the pale of the law as necessary to achieve peace and order and progress and all that.
Of course, PRRD is not the first mayor to be elected President, Joseph Estrada was, but our experiment with Estrada was cut short, mainly because of his own doings. (His doings were his own undoing!). Now, before Estrada, and with the exception of Cory, one had to be a legislator (usually a senator) and a professional (usually a lawyer) for the public to consider you as presidential timber.
This time around we potentially have two mayors aspiring for the presidency, if news reports are to be believed. These are first-termer Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso, aka Isko, and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, aka Inday Sara. Each seems to have an exciting personality who know how to play the media and that is why they are tops in surveys.
I am just not too sure about track record, though. I have this feeling that the record is too thin to stand on. And if there is no record to speak of, are the people to be asked to rely on promises?
After 2016 I am hoping that Filipinos will demand more than just braggadocio, or mere promises, or sound bites.
As of this writing only two people have “declared:” Sen. and former PNP chief Panfilo Lacson for the presidency and Senate President Vicente Sotto III as his running-mate for the vice presidency. The rest remains coy.
So, I have not made my selection yet. I am still waiting to see who will be left standing after the dust has settled. This cast is far from complete; I suspect that Sen. Bong Go is still being urged by some quarters to throw his hat in the ring, those who feel that he will be easier to work with than Mayora Sara, or those who know they will be “outside the kulambo” if Mayora Sara is the administration’s bet.
I am also aware that a big part of the presidential hopes of Sen. Manny Pacquiao rest on the results of his August 21 bout in Las Vegas, which is no longer with the original opponent, the hard-hitting American champion Errol Spence, for a unified WBC/IBF welterweight crown. Because Spence has claimed he is suffering from a torn retina, Pacquiao is now up against WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas. If Pacquiao were to win in dramatic fashion, it could create some significant wave of Tokyo Olympics-like Filipino pride around Pacquiao that could revive much of the adulation he used to enjoy among the Filipino population at the height of his boxing career.
Of course, if he were to (knock on wood) lose, especially in a dramatic fashion, the best he might be able to aspire for is to be taken as the vice-presidential candidate.
Have You decided?
Or, like me, are you still on “wait and see” mode?
