In our article in this space last May 16 entitled “Forming an opposition slate,” we wrote about the personalities being considered for the senatorial ticket of the opposition.
Yesterday, LP President Senator Kiko Pangilinan named the first six members of their senatorial ticket for 2019: reelectionist Senator Bam Aquino, Rep. Gary Alejano, former Quezon Cong. Erin Tañada, DLSU professor Chel Diokno, former Akbayan Party-list congressman Barry Gutierrez, and if she agrees, telenovela actress Agot Isidro.
All the names mentioned were in our May 16 list, which makes my “reliable” sources very, very reliable.
Of course, we mentioned some other names: former CJ Hilario Davide of Cebu, former CJ Meilou Sereno, former DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, former presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, movie actor Dingdong Dantes, Jim Paredes and Leah Navarro, both active in the Black-and-White movement. Possibly Gina Lopez, the DENR secretary-designate “dis-appointed” by the Commission on Appointments. And I learned the other day, Muslim activist Samira Ali Gutoc who was nominated by former Peace Process Secretary Ging Deles.
I was also reliably informed that actor Dantes has opted not to join the prospective opposition slate, and is instead eyeing a congressional seat somewhere. So too is another name being bandied about, QC mayor Herbert Bautista, who has decided to run for a congressional seat instead.
So it is not as if the “opposition” is not without any personalities to form a senatorial ticket.
But something bothers me about the name they have tagged their band with: the “resistance” ticket. So easy to corrupt. Resistant to change easily comes up.
Of course the opposition has defined their resistance to certain perceived “evils” of the present administration, but then again, as things stand, it looks like a great majority of Filipinos believe that change has come. And while certain problems still linger, people are convinced that these are temporary, and that the President is sincerely doing his best to resolve the same.
In any case, the political season is just around the corner. Abangan na lang ang mga susunod na kabanata.
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In the City of Manila, the mayoralty tussle next year will be something for the Guinness almanac of the unusual.
There is the present mayor, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, who just turned 81 last April 19, and will be 82 during the campaign. There is returning Mayor Fred Lim, who unless I am wrong by a year or two, should be 90 years old. And Buhay Party-list representative, also a former three-term Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, who will turn 77 by August.
A septuagenarian, an octogenarian, and a nonagenarian.
Nothing wrong with age. Good wine becomes better with age. And think of Malaysia, which just elected into power their 92-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
But challenging the senior citizens will be former vice mayor Francisco Domagoso, popularly known as Isko Moreno, his screen name which he adopted as well as political nom de guerre. He should be in his fifties, about the same age, I suppose, as Cesar Montano, the hot-off-the-press resigned Tourism Promotions Board COO.
This will be fun.
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President Rodrigo Duterte seems to be in a “firing” mood.
Tapos na ang bayad-utang, Palace sources say.
After that assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation who was so full of himself, and the Tourism Promotions chief who resigned right after a meeting with the President in Davao City, there will be more. Or so I am reliably told.
One is a lawyer who is being rejected by his entire agency’s career personnel.
“Isinusuka” is the term the personnel describe how they loathe him.
There will be lesser officials, defined as below cabinet level and below critical GOCC level. Everyone in government, excepting a very few, are in “tenterhooks,” a word the President likes to use.