Reluctant candidate, resounding winner

By Al S. Mendoza

 

ALMOST, it’s all over but the shouting goes the cliché.

That should very welI refer now to Leni Robredo’s impending win as vice president of the Philippines.

Even as the Comelec count is yet to be done at this writing, Robredo has become a virtual cinch to clinch the post lovingly referred to as “the breadth away from Malacanang.”

And yet, only a while back, Robredo refused to run—vehemently.

Many before her were shoo-in bets as the running mate of Mar Roxas, with Grace Poe as the top choice.

But Poe had another plan—misplaced as it would harshly turn out on May 9.

Poe would have made for a good VP partner as surveys had consistently showed her the front-runner in that slot early on.

She even carried that momentum into her presidential bid—ill-advised it had turned out in the end.

Her mentor, Chiz Escudero her running mate, would also turn from front-runner to failure.  Alas, he would bizarrely turn from stud to dud.

Such is politics.

When Poe thought she’d had it, she would, embarrassingly, come down to earth—landing face first—after her ugly third-place defeat in the polls.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

They remain senators up to 2019 but, at the moment, Poe and Escudero must lick their wounds—a result of their misguided ambition from the very start.

But in contrast, look at Robredo now.  From reluctant runner to resounding winner.

And yes, isn’t Robredo’s reluctance almost a xerox of Rodrigo Duterte’s reluctance?

From being reluctant to triumphant—that was Duterte too in the last elections.

Almost, Duterte didn’t make it, catching the last bus in the nick of time.

The Comelec deadline of filing for candidacy was just ticks away when Duterte appeared, substituting for Martin Dino and becoming the PDP-Laban’s presidential bet bathed in suspended hesitation.

Today, Duterte is the gallant winner, his unorthodox, foul-mouthed laden campaign strategy taking the electorate by storm.

The chance passenger did not only receive a mere nod in approval on his late arrival but, omigosh, he basked in the glory of an overwhelming yes that drowned his four rivals—the nearest being Mar Roxas losing by a whopping nearly six million votes.

But if we go by history, the reluctant seems to always win in the end.

The widow Cory Aquino was a reluctant candidate when she defeated Marcos in the historic 1986 snap election.

Her son, Noynoy, was a reluctant candidate when he trounced Erap—even going to a retreat in a Zamboanga seminary to seek divine guidance before scoring his rousing victory in 2010.

Thus, with the victory of Duterte—and yes, of Robredo, too—history was just being repeated.

Who will it be in 2022?

Way too early to know.

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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