Duterte: With Binay as president, we face a bleak future

By Al S. Mendoza

 

A dude told me that presidential candidate Rody “Digong” Duterte had allegedly said this a while back:  “If I don’t get to run for president or if I get disqualified, I will endorse Binay.”

I tried to extract more information from him:

“I just read it in the papers,” he said.  “I forgot which newspaper.”

And then he said, “Duterte also said in that same news story that if he becomes president and fails to complete his term, he wants Bongbong to succeed him.”

I grilled him further.

“When was this?” I asked him.  “Which newspaper printed Duterte’s comments?”

He said he had forgotten the newspaper’s name.

On Friday as I was about to start writing this, I got hold of the March 10 issue of the Inquirer, the newspaper that I was connected with for 20 years, the last 7 years as the newspaper’s sports editor.

It had a story on Duterte campaigning in Antipolo City.

On Inquirer’s Page A13 that day, it contained these portions of a story about Grace Poe’s victory of being allowed by the Supreme Court to run for president:

“Duterte had no comment on Poe’s Supreme Court victory, but earlier this week, he said he was not afraid of losing the election as long as the winner was not Binay.”

Further, the Inquirer report said:  “Campaigning in Antipolo City, Duterte said the Philippines faced a bleak future if Binay, who faced charges of graft and corruption in the Office of the Ombudsman, won the election.”

I cited this to that dude who said Duterte had favored Binay to win if Duterte won’t make it.

He said, “I don’t know about that.”

I told him it’s in the Inquirer.

“Uh, OK,” he said.  “I hope Duterte was not misquoted.”

I asked him who he would vote for as president in the May 9 polls.

“I have not decided yet,” he said.  “Maybe, I’ll make my choice after the last two presidential debates (March and April) are over.”

He said surveys are a bit confusing, arguing that the only clear trend in the surveys was that Miriam Santiago was always last in the standings.

I told him I never believed in surveys, citing past data that virtually showed all surveys not coming out true in many elections past.

Jinggoy Estrada was the consistent No. 1 in surveys in the 2013 senatorial elections.

Poe, who was not even in the Magic 10 then, emerged No. 1.

Manny Villar kept hitting the No. 1 spot in surveys in the 2010 presidential polls.

Noynoy Aquino won by landslide, with Erap placing second and Villar third.

There are supposed to be about 54 million voters this year.

Some 30 million might vote.

How can 2,000-3,000 Filipinos that are usually asked in surveys honestly reflect the sentiment of 30 million voters?

The surveyed do not even comprise one percent of the total number of expected 30 million voters in May.

As I said, surveys are what they are:  done strictly for business.

Thus, only those with money can commission them.

You know who they are.

Because they mean business, well, they get results that please them.

As Ted Failon loves to say, “You know what I’m saying?”

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

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