General Admission
The candidates
By Al S Mendoza
SOME 130 persons had wished to become president of the republic in 2010.
That list got pared down to less than 10.
Benigno Aquino III won by landslide, with Erap finishing a stunning second.
Six years later, some 170 or so hopefuls wish to replace Aquino in the May 2016 polls.
I wonder how many would survive Comelec’s razor-sharp scissors.
But this early, though, sure to gun for the presidency are Mar Roxas and Jojo Binay.
They do not have just the money, they also have the party (LP and UNA).
Money and organization are the chief requirements to capture the green light from Comelec.
Grace Poe has also the wherewithal to mount a billion-peso campaign for Malacanang, including a powerful party in NPC.
But just days after filing her certificate of candidacy, Poe saw herself getting bombarded with suits calling for her disqualification.
As I write this, there were at least six filers wanting to eliminate Poe from the presidential derby.
They had a similar battle cry: Poe is not a natural-born citizen of the Philippines.
One of Poe’s foes was no less than former Sen. Kit Tatad, the martial law press secretary of Marcos the dictator.
Isn’t it a bit weird, since Tatad was in the party that made the late FPJ, Grace’s adoptive father, its standard bearer in Da King’s failed presidential bid in 2004?
If ever, Poe’s case will have to be resolved with finality by the Supreme Court.
Politics: It has no permanent allies, indeed, only permanent interest.
Look at Miriam Defensor-Santiago, suddenly running also for president and next naming Bongbong Marcos her VP bet.
Bongbong has yet to say yes to Miriam.
Hasn’t Bongbong said after filing his VP certificate that he will go solo?
“Mine is not a politics of personality,” Bongbong has said. “I am on my own.”
But unlike Bongbong, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said he would run for VP only under Digong Duterte’s presidential candidacy.
To put muscle to that, Cayetano virtually pitched tent in Davao City, where Duterte rules as mayor virtually unopposed.
Duterte ignored the October 16 deadline for filing of candidacy but he is still widely believed to substitute Martin Dino, who filed his certificate of candidacy for president just minutes before the Comelec closed its doors at 5 p.m.
Despite Duterte’s insistence that he would not run for president, his followers insist he’d change his mind at the proper time.
Dino and Duterte both belong to PDP-Laban and Comelec rules allow substitutions between party-mates up to December 10.
How the Duterte drama, eagerly watched like a telenovela, would end is the question of the hour.
If he runs, finally, it will define the real Duterte.
If he loses, he will have fought the good fight.
If he wins, Duterte will lead a throng that revered him in pre-election tussles as, in the words of no-nonsense sportsman Benny Gopez, “the only option in the 2016 presidential elections.”
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