In Philippine politics and culture, there are a lot aside from the regular pols or their variations—the traditional politicians who have imbued themselves with the ways of neo-feudal and patronage politics—there are also the idealists and the Quixotic if not the buffoons and there are also those well-meaning not only undermined or misunderstood but bereft of logistics and machineries.
I don’t know where to classify this Batangueño whom I recently met.
It was Zeny Marcelo-Poe, the common-law-wife of the late actor Conrad Poe, half-brother of FPJ who tagged us along to get to know Hilario Andes, also known as Larry Andes, a Bicolano by birth but has been living in Lipa City in Batangas for more than twenty years. Zeny acts as a sort of mentor if not operator.
Who is Larry Andes?
Larry Andes is bet of the political party, FLAG-LAMP (Watawat at Lampara), who had filed his certificate of candidacy for the presidency and has been making the rounds of appearances in various sectors to present himself.
According to Larry, this is his first attempt to run for an elective post but he had served the government in various capacities as staff of the Department of Trade and Industry and former head the Regional Operations of the Philippine Communications Operations Office (PCOO).
Andes is only one of the ninety-seven presidential aspirants in the 2022 elections.
This early, the theatrics these actors have performed are colorful and diverse however eloquent their statesmanship. Some of them even had dramatic monologues and stagey calisthenics which were seen by political art pundits and critics as traits of nuisance candidates if only to mock the electoral process and therefore get removed from the list.
Therefore, how do we gauge a nuisance candidate?
I asked Andes, given the nature of the plurality of the contention and limited resources for a massive campaign, would he feel he’d be declared a nuisance bet.
“No. We already have the capacity to do a national campaign,” he said confidently.
His platforms he informed, among others, include enhancement of agriculture, preservation of the patrimony, elimination of tax greed etc.
Let’s find out soonest from Comelec if Andes makes it to the official list of presidential hopefuls.