It’s a movement, not a campaign

“Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.”

—Emile Durkheim

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THERE are signs that the astronomical ascension of Vice President Leni Robredo in Philippine politics from an unknown wife of a not-so-famous cabinet secretary who died in a plane crash during the previous administration, can be compared to that of the late former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino.

When the late strongman former President Ferdinand Marcos was the dominant figure in Philippine politics from 1965 to 1986, no one saw the demise of his political power—until the unknown housewife of a charismatic opposition icon murdered in the tarmac three years earlier, came from nowhere to trounce him in a pre-EDSA uprising snap election.

All the surveys dismally showed “Tita Cory” in the rock-bottom even if it was unanimously predicted Marcos would anyway retain his power “by whatever means”. The rest is now history.

Let’s forget the survey. Fidel V. Ramos never topped any of the many surveys dominated by Ramon Mitra, Danding Cojuangco and Miriam Defensor-Santiago during the 1992 presidential election.

Robredo never topped or has not ruled some of the recent reputed surveys except those done in the universities, media institutions and in foreign lands with large Filipino communities.

But what we are witnessing these past months is no longer an ordinary campaign. What has been unfolding is a movement. I don’t need to elaborate something that is so obvious and palpable.  

These were the same “handwritings on the wall” many of us saw when Mrs. Aquino launched her presidential bid in 1985, a year before the February snap election that pitted her against one of Asia’s most powerful dictators.

I will stop from here. I leave the rest of reckoning or calculation to the intelligent readers and let history take its course once again.

 

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IN the past two years, news in the Philippines has been dominated only by two major stories: Covid-19 and illegal drugs bust.

The other news was about politics—the preparations for the May 9, 2022 election—followed by crime stories or about the peace and order. 

The rest was about entertainment, sports, economy, animals and climate change.

Covid-19, how the government has been fighting it and how the people have been responding to the vaccination and the travel restrictions and other pandemic-induced protocols; and illegal drugs, how the police have been busting and arresting traffickers, completely were in the prime time news and front pages of major dailies for the last 24 months.

It seems we might soon see the decline of news about Covid-19 once Omicron, the No. 1 producer of a flurry of pandemic stories, will start to move away (it can’t stay in our life forever, for heaven’s sake) but news about illegal drugs has no ending in sight.

It appears illegal drug trafficking is here to stay and stories about major busts and shooting to death of “armed” traffickers will have a permanent space in the daily news.     

With 2022 as the election year in the Philippines, coming second to Covid-19 in as far as major news is concerned, is now politics. Once the official campaign period unwraps, political news will give the pandemic news a run for its money.

 

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That's the width of an asteroid expected to fly by Earth next week is 3,451 feet . 

On January 18, the kilometer-wide asteroid known as 7482 (1994PC1) will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at a speed of more than 47,000 miles per hour. Scientists are confident the asteroid will not hit Earth, but it's the closest it will come for the next two centuries.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

Would Defensor and Treñas endorse Robredo without Drilon?

 “We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never a candidate.”

—Kin Hubbard

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

UNLIKE Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. and Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas, most local government unit (LGU) chief executives in the country still haven’t revealed their choices for president and vice president in the May 9, 2022 Philippine election.

Out of respect or fear for President Rodrigo Duterte, many of these LGU chief executives must be thinking “it’s still premature” to declare their preferences until after the final substitution of candidates on November 15.

Despite her repeated denials, there are still speculations that Duterte’s daughter, Sara Carpio, mayor of Davao City, will run for vice president under standard bearer, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in the eleventh hour.

This gives some LGU chief executives the jitters.

If some of them will be in a hurry to endorse presidential candidates other than (or without waiting for the possible) Marcos-Carpio tandem, they might “earn Malacanang’s ire” and lose the pelfs and privileges during the campaign period. 

Like in the previous elections in the Philippines, incumbent governors and mayors who supported the administration candidates always received favors or special treatment for their “cooperation and loyalty.”

 

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Because of their relationship with opposition senator Franklin “Frank” Drilon, among other obvious reasons, Malacanang wouldn’t be surprised that Treñas and Defensor endorsed Vice President Leni Robredo.

Other than their personal friendship with Robredo (both Defensor and Treñas were the vice president’s former colleagues in the House of Representatives), Western Visayas has been known traditionally to be the bailiwick—but not the exclusive turf—of the opposition.

There were other possible principal factors why Defensor and Treñas couldn’t support Marcos aside from Drilon: Defensor’s father, former Governor Arthur “Art” Sr., was a key opposition stalwart as assemblyman in the defunct Batasang Pambansa when Bongbong’s late father, Ferdinand Sr., was president. 

Treñas’ late father, Efrain, was one of the country’s most respected and highly touted constitutional commissioners, who detested the strongman’s Martial Law rule in the 70’s.

Drilon’s involvement can only be accidental in the scenario. 

Even without the flamboyant senator from Molo district in Iloilo City, Treñas and Defensor would most certainly still be endorsing Robredo.

 

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AS we all feared since two months ago, Andrew Cuomo, former New York governor, has been charged with a misdemeanor sex crime for allegedly groping a woman at the state's Executive Mansion last year.

It was reported that Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state court system, has confirmed a misdemeanor complaint had been filed against Cuomo in a "sex crime" case in Albany City Court.

The complaint from the Albany County Sheriff's Office reportedly alleged that Cuomo committed the misdemeanor act of forcible touching at his official residence on the afternoon of Dec. 7 last year, between 3:51 p.m. and 4:07 p.m.

"At the aforesaid date time and location the defendant Andrew M. Cuomo did intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim [redacted] and into her intimate body part. Specifically, the victims (sic) left breast for the purposes of degrading and gratifying his sexual desires, all contrary to the provisions of the statute in such case made and provided," read the complaint.

The complaint reportedly cited evidence including cell phone records, state Capitol swipes, state police records and text messages from Cuomo's cell phone, while also pointing to some findings listed in New York Attorney General Letitia James' report, released Aug. 3 o a week before Cuomo announced he would be resigning.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo—Ed)

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Pink brings my memory back to red vs yellow

“Pink isn't just a color, it's an attitude!”

—Miley Cyrus

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I WITNESSED the yellow phenomenon during the February 7, 1986 snap election when Cory Aquino of UNIDO-PDP-Laban ended President Ferdinand Marcos’ reigns in a stunning upset that shocked the world.

When President Marcos landed in the makeshift stage, where the Iloilo Sports Complex in La Paz district now stands adjacent the former West Visayas State College (now University) in January during the campaign, I was allowed to stay onstage because I wore a red jacket. 

There, I had the privilege to shake President Marcos’ hand after he alighted from the chopper; members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) weren’t strict.

Later, another chopper, carrying showbiz personalities led by Richard Gomez, Nadia Montenegro, Janice de Belen, Lloyd Samartino landed. 

I helped facilitate the screaming fans’ signing of autographs with the showbiz visitors. 

That was my brief shot with fame, if I may call it.

 

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The program was short and lasted only for about 15 minutes. 

President Marcos left shortly after former Assemblyman Salvador “Buddy” Britanico, then deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), confirmed that the WVSC was now the WVSU.

Red, as official color of President Marcos’ campaign, was overwhelming—and enticing. 

We thought it was a symbol of victory and dominance for President Marcos and the powerful KBL party. 

We thought Mrs. Aquino’s opposition party that adopted the yellow color from yellow ribbon, the symbol of Ninoy’s legacy and enduring narrative of his heroism and faith in a people “worth dying for”, was no match to Mr. Marcos’ red spectacle.

“Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin!” was the deafening chant of pro-Marcos minions clad in red shirts, caps, bags, among other campaign materials.

 

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I am embarrassed to admit that I was biased for the red color during the 1986 snap election; I was probably convinced (or brainwashed?) by KBL’s effective propaganda machine that Tita Cory’s yellow color was synonymous to an “attempt by the opposition party to allow the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) to take over the reigns of the government if Cory Aquino wins.”

I was so naive and stupid to believe the canard hook, line, and sinker.

We had been brainwashed and hoodwinked into believing that red color was the movie’s important character and yellow color was the contrabida.

As history has shown, Ninoy Aquino’s widow wasn’t declared the winner despite garnering 7,502,601 (NAMFREL) votes against the late dictator’s 6,787,556 (NAMFREL) votes.

Mr. Marcos insisted he won the race and celebrated in Malacanang with his loyalists after being sworn in to serve for another term after 20 years.

Thus the EDSA Revolution intervened and kicked the entire Marcos family out of Malacanang to Hawaii.

 

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When Vice President Leni Robredo adopted pink as her campaign’s official color, my memory brought me back during the 1986 snap election while listening to her speech before she filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for president in the May 9, 2022 election.

The sudden onrush of pink color that cascaded in the streets in the form of streamers, placards, T-shirts, masks, paints in the vehicles and residential houses, social media profiles, etcetera was staggering and breathtaking.

I thought history was repeated again. Tita Cory’s yellow in 1986 and VP Leni’s pink in 2022.

Was it a coincidence that both were ordinary wives and mothers who lost their husbands tragically and they rose to prominence astronomically in the moments when the Philippines was in need of an icon and redemption from a nightmarish leadership?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)