TODAY, we are just nine months away from the May 9, 2021, national and local elections.
It is two months until the deadline for filing of certificates of candidacy in October.
Its six months until the start of the official national campaign and seven and a half months until the official local campaign.
In spite of our third ‘backslide’ to a higher level of quarantine, the original ECQ was on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
This was followed by heightened levels of quarantine on Tuesday, August 4, 2020; Monday, March 28, 2021; and last Friday, August 6, 2021.
There is no stopping the elections, the official campaigns, the filing of certificates of candidacy, and the present political maneuvering.
Recently, Senator Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson and Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto announced their political plans.
They will run in tandem, respectively for president and vice president.
However, they belong to different political parties. While Sotto has been with Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) for several years, Lacson just joined and was sworn in as head of the Reporma Party.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party’s head and Vice President Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo met with Lacson and Sotto.
Former vice - presidential candidate and Senator Antonio ‘Sony’ Trillanes and his camp reacted negatively to this.
Earlier, the 1Sambayan had been negative to Lacson’s inclusion in its list of presidentiables.
Last Thursday, it was reported that Manila Mayor ‘Isko’ Domogoso Moreno had resigned from the National Unity Party (NUP), one of several political parties aligned with Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte’s Hugpong.
He was about to join the Aksyon Demokratiko, but the oath taking was postponed because of problems with the 24 - hour vaccination during ECQ in Manila.
Last Friday, I listened to several radio interviews of Moreno.
It was the first time that I heard him even if obliquely, criticize Duterte, by saying that, he Moreno, has no children running in the elections.
Last Monday, although not mentioned by name, it was obvious that Duterte’s criticism of vaccination lines in the rain, referred to Manila and Moreno.
The perception created by mass media is that there was an intentional effort to sabotage Moreno.
Thus, the fake news about non vaccinees not being given ‘ayuda’ nor allowed to go out.
According to Moreno, there was organized ‘hakot’ and agitators.
On the opposition side, the only ‘unity’ or ‘disunity’ problem appears to be Trillanes’s hard line stance against Lacson.
Meanwhile, for whatever it is worth, the Liberal Party gained an ally in the newly organized 1Sambayan.
However, the latter was plagued by a slow and undramatic start.
In my opinion, their first and biggest mistake was to be too ‘hard line’ or ‘puritanical’ in excluding Lacson and other former allies of PDU30.
Just imagine if the Aquino, democratic, opposition and yellow forces had rejected all former allies, friends, partners and supporters of President/Dictator Ferdinand Edralin Marcos in 1986.
There would be no People Power Revolution/EDSA 1. Or if there had been one, an Enrile -Ramos junta would have taken over instead of turning over power to Cory.
Marcos reigned from December 30, 1965 until February 25, 1986, a total of twenty years and fifty – seven days.
Eight years were as a duly elected and reelected President under the 1935 Constitution. Twelve years and fifty – seven days were as a dictator under the 1973 Marcos ‘Viva Voce’ Constitution.
On the other hand, the 2016 – 2020 Duterte coalition has already split three or four ways without counting former vice presidential candidate, senator and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, former vice - presidential candidate and Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Romualdez Marcos, Jr. and former presidential candidate and incumbent Senator Richard Juico Gordon’s plans:
- Duterte or Go/Duterte – still the strongest and richest;
- Pacquiao – individually, openly and personally, the richest;
- Lacson/Sotto – were able to posture as the center or independent slate; and
- Moreno – in terms of popularity, the wildest card;
The biggest problem among the above is that there are both too many presidential as well as vice presidential bets.
Therefore, it will be very difficult to collapse two slates into one by having a presidentiable slide to vice president.
These are all bigger problems than as far as the opposition is concerned, what to do with Trillanes.
Robredo’s biggest weakness has been her lack of decision whether to run for president or not.
The opposition’s biggest is weakness is,
“if not Robredo, who?”
Over the past year, there has hardly been any internal growth and progress in so far as the Liberal Party is concerned.
However, the biggest strength of the opposition, the Liberal Party and Robredo is her lack of ambitious self-interest to run or become president.
Therefore, she is not blinded by narrow ambition. Hopefully, her allies, friends, party and supporters are like her.
That way, Robredo could be the strongest kingmaker. Hopefully, her allies, friends, party and supporters will follow her example.
Even, if her choice does not win, she would have gone a long way in defeating Duterte and Duterte’s anointed.
Then, the five plus years that Duterte invested and spent in attacking, destabilizing and demonizing the opposition and Robredo would have been a waste of time and effort.