I think it’s about time we all called a spade a government-issued shovel. I’m talking about the black propaganda operations, the likes of which we’ve probably never seen before, all attributed to administration Liberal Party candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
It may be true, as LP vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo says, that the administration team has been getting its share of brickbats, especially from social media. But whether Robredo admits it or not, it must be clear to anyone with half a brain that these are by no means cleverly contrived, well-funded and consistent—unlike, say, the attacks on the rivals of Roxas for the presidency.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who has railed loud and long about the still-unfounded allegation that he has cancer, is only the latest victim of such a demolition campaign. And Duterte, who has since withdrawn from the race, has already identified Roxas and his camp followers as the perpetrators of the smear job against him.
Senator Grace Poe has also identified Roxas as the mastermind of continuing effort to disqualify her through legal means, in the Senate Electoral Tribunal and other venues, for alleged infirmities in her citizenship and residency. And while the get-Grace campaign is more of a legal offensive than a propaganda war, it still has all the hallmarks of a well-orchestrated drive.
As for Vice President Jejomar Binay, he claims he’s the victim of the longest-running smear job, intended, if not to cost him votes next May, to land him in jail on trumped-up corruption charges before the elections. And yes, in public and in private, Binay points to Roxas as the backer and the intended beneficiary of the attacks on him.
The late entry of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago in the presidential derby could not have been predicted by anyone, including the Roxas camp. But because Santiago has teamed up with Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., no less than President Noynoy Aquino (who anointed Roxas) has been leading the charge against the latest tandem.
Perhaps, once the Roxas propaganda and legal operatives have dug up enough dirt on Miriam, they will launch direct attacks on her, as well. But in the meantime, they seem content with smearing her with the same anti-Marcos brush that Aquino himself is using against Bongbong.
What’s clear is that all of Roxas’ rivals are accusing him of using conducting demolition jobs, by legal or propaganda means, against them. None of these candidates has ever accused any other camp of going after them in this underhanded manner.
The political cognoscenti always point to two Roxas henchmen as the implementors of these campaigns. One is a prominent, well-connected lawyer known to be Roxas’ longtime legal adviser; the other is a disgraced former palace propagandist with a self-declared specialization in new media—even if he was really just a middling old-media practitioner.
Roxas, quite naturally, has denied all of these allegations. But no one—least of all his rivals—has been convinced.
Of course, politicians have used legal machinations and black propaganda operations to take down their rivals for the longest time. But no one, I think, has invested as much in such campaigns as Roxas has, if his opponents are to be believed.
Only time—and the final results of the 2016 elections—will tell if this is a viable strategy to get Roxas to Malacañang Palace. And if others will follow down this despicable stretch of the tuwid na daan.
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The urban planner Jun Palafox, who admits that all his proposals to the Aquino administration have been ignored, has suggested that the Philippines needs 200 more cities to decongest urban centers like Metro Manila. It’s not a bad idea—and it’s something that businesses and mass-housing developers are already implementing with no help from government.
Many manufacturers and service providers in the business process outsourcing industry are already relocating the bulk of their operations to the countryside, mostly in nearby provinces like Cavite, Laguna and Batangas.
With the virtual collapse of the traffic and transport system in Metro Manila and the chronic congestion in highways leading to the metropolis, coupled with the lack of new public infrastructure development, Filipinos will have to wait for future administrations to do the job that this one spectacularly failed to do.
In the meantime, developers like Pro-Friends or the Property Company of Friends in Cavite are intent on making it unnecessary for people to travel far for work or school each day, by locating their developments outside of Metro Manila.
Pro-Friends’ huge Lancaster New City project, started in 2007 on 1,107 hectares in Kawit, Imus and General Trias in Cavite, was envisioned as a self-sustaining development project complete with housing, leisure, commercial and industrial elements. About 14,800 families have already moved to their own houses in Lancaster New City, which is still conveniently 30 minutes away from Baclaran or Mall of Asia through the Cavitex toll road.
Lancaster will also have its own industrial enclave in the Suntech iPark, where many BPO and manufacturers could relocate in the future. Since 1999, Pro-Friends has completed 17 low and middle-income housing developments and has nine ongoing projects, including a six-tower, mid-rise condominium complex in Quezon City scheduled for turnover this year.