‘At this point, everybody is looking sideways at everybody else, trying to gauge which chess piece will move at a given time.’
WE’RE halfway into 2021 and despite finding ourselves still in the midst of a full-blown global pandemic, it is inevitable that movements on the political front have begun to happen. After all, the filing of certificates of candidacy is only four months away, and the 2022 national elections now a mere 11 months down.
A lot of these movements remain largely unseen: alliances being formed, relationships being kept warm or being rekindled, all towards the end of assuring their patch of green in the political turf is preserved (or even perhaps expanded) after the elections. This can perhaps explain some of the sharper pronouncements coming from administration allies, especially those who are trying to establish themselves as viable candidates for higher positions.
The month of June in the year prior to the May elections is usually the time for benchmarking surveys, intended to aid would-be candidates in gauging their chances.
Within the four-month window between June to October, those exploring to run for national positions usually embark on campaigns to raise their awareness among voters in order to improve their standing either in public or private surveys.
Among political groups or parties, conversations should be ongoing on potential standard bearers or identifying candidates they will support among the current crop of would-be presidentiables. It seems that this process has been contentious thus far for PDP-Laban, given the very public power struggle among factions in the party. Just recently, that tussle between Sen. Manny Pacquiao (who apparently took over the party leadership from fellow Sen. Koko Pimentel) and PDP Vice Chair Alfonso Cusi over calling a national council meeting was indicative of that growing fissure inside the party.
Apparently, a faction led by the Energy Secretary was quite displeased at some of the supposedly critical remarks made by Sen. Pacquiao aimed at the Duterte administration.
President Duterte is, of course, the chairman of the party, whom I understand is being encouraged by some party-mates to run for vice president after he steps down as President on June 30, 2022. This talk was quelled by Pacquiao himself, who admonished his fellows to focus on the pandemic instead of politics.
It does not help that the grapevine is rife with talk that Pacquiao himself has already laid the groundwork for a presidential run, further complicating matters about who President Duterte will field as his possible successor. You already see the factions at work: there are very tangible efforts coming from the supporters of Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter (and a power bloc unto herself, by all accounts) Sara Duterte-Carpio. On the other hand, you see the positioning of Sen. Bong Go, another faction by himself, owing to his close proximity to the President.
While none of them have come out publicly with a clear admission of gunning for the highest position in the land, it seems that there are already forces at work to derail the potential positioning of Pacquiao, starting with the intense drubbing the latter received at the hands of Sen. Pia Cayetano on one of his pet pieces of legislation. Add to this the current imbroglio within the party (even the presidential spokesperson weighed in and conveyed the President’s blessing of Cusi’s actions) it seems that Pacquiao’s plans might be more difficult to execute than initially thought.
At this point, everybody is looking sideways at everybody else, trying to gauge which chess piece will move at a given time. Of course, that photograph of Mayor Duterte with the children of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos that made the rounds over the weekend was another calculated volley into the political arena, intended to gauge not the reaction of the public but rather of those who move in the political space.
In any event, expect to see more of these tussles in the coming months, dear millennials and fillennials. As always, we watch and we wait.
