It’s been two weeks since the May 9, 2016 elections. Rodrigo Duterte is the undisputed victor in the presidential derby. He is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and the first to assume the presidency right after holding a local government post.
Duterte’s supporters are elated, the business community is confident in his leadership, and the stock market remains optimistic. Even the clergy who criticized him during the campaign now wish him well in his management of the country.
As in every election, there are prominent casualties.
The most prominent casualty is Mar Roxas of the pro-administration Liberal Party. In 2010, Roxas sought the presidency, but his status in the surveys forced him to yield to Benigno Aquino III and run instead for vice president. Roxas focused his campaign against his rival, Senator Loren Legarda. In the end, another rival, Makati’s Jejomar Binay, defeated them.
Aquino won the presidency and promised Roxas a Cabinet post in his administration.
After Roxas joined the Aquino administration in mid-2011, he was seen as Aquino’s inevitable successor. While that status afforded Roxas considerable political visibility, it also associated him with the shortcomings and corruption of the Aquino administration. Roxas was probably better off without the endorsement of Aquino, but that would have made Roxas’ presidential campaign more expensive.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Roxas. In 2015, and with the election season a year away, LP stalwarts taunted Roxas with the possibility that the LP may come up with a presidential candidate other than Roxas.
Vice President Jejomar Binay is another prominent casualty. Binay had been the consistent leader in the surveys since 2014. After all, each failure in the administration of President Aquino III made voters turn to Binay as the visible alternative. By early 2015, Binay was virtually unbeatable. Many politicians moved heaven and earth just to be associated with him.
Unfortunately for Binay, the Aquino administration attributed many anomalies to him, including a parking building near the Makati City Hall which was allegedly overpriced. Another issue was about a large plantation in Batangas said to be owned by the Binay family. It had an air-conditioned piggery and a labyrinth.
One more issue against Binay was about an alleged arrogant demand made by his son, Makati Mayor Jun-jun Binay, that a closed gate of Dasmariñas Village be opened for him during one late evening. The incident was reported on television.
Malacañang also branded the Binay family a political dynasty because many family members held elective posts—the vice presidency, a seat in the Senate, a seat in the House of Representatives, and the office of the city mayor of Makati, which a Binay always held since 1986.
Considering the number of television and newspaper advertisements endorsing Binay for president, Binay must have spent a big fortune in the campaign. Despite the expenses, however, he still lost. If the Aquino and Roxas camps make good on their threat, Binay will be facing plunder raps after he steps down as vice president.
Grace Poe is another prominent casualty. After placing first in the 2013 senatorial elections, Poe saw a chance at the presidency in 2016. Her citizenship, however, stirred an issue. As a foundling, Poe did not meet the Constitution’s definition of a natural-born citizen. Despite this impediment, Poe insisted on running for president. Cases were filed against her but the Supreme Court ultimately allowed her to run. Experts in Constitutional Law consider that ruling an all-time low in Philippine jurisprudence.
For a brief period, Poe topped the surveys. Her star diminished after Duterte joined the presidential race. Voters also saw through her empty motherhood statements, and her reliance on an inexistent “political legacy” of her father, the late film star Fernando Poe Jr. Like Binay, Poe spent a fortune in her political campaign.
Chiz Escudero is probably the most prominent among those defeated in the vice presidential race. Despite being a senator, Escudero saw an express lane ticket to higher office in Grace Poe. Despite the obvious support of his political party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Escudero claimed to be an independent candidate for vice president together with Poe. In doing so, many voters saw Escudero as an equivocal, slippery politician.
Escudero also saw a political opportunity in the protest rally of the Iglesia Ni Cristo at Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City last year. Although Escudero was allowed to deliver a speech during the rally, he was not able to get the nod of the INC in the election.
What sealed Escudero’s defeat was his criticism of the martial law regime in the Philippines. While Escudero claimed in his campaign advertisements that he was against a repetition of the “abusive martial law regime” of President Ferdinand Marcos, he was conveniently silent about his family’s close ties with that regime. Evidently, Escudero’s duplicity did not sit well with voters who experienced bad times during the martial law years.
Another name in the list is Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who “launched” a bogus run for vice president. He supposedly ran as an independent, although he is affiliated with the Nacionalista Party. With no presidential candidate and no senatorial slate to campaign with him, Trillanes had all the characteristics of a nuisance candidate.
Prior to his entering politics, Trillanes was a soldier who tried to overthrow the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Failing in that regard, he was thrown in a military stockade. Trillanes remained in detention even after he got elected to the Senate in 2007. Grateful for his release by President Aquino in 2010, Trillanes tried to repay Aquino by accusing Duterte of corruption during the homestretch of the presidential election. Happily, the voters did not fall for Trillanes’ manifestly bad timing.
Prior to the elections, Duterte said that he would take legal action against Trillanes for his unfounded accusations. In an obvious attempt to get himself off the hook now that Duterte is president, Trillanes said he is going to support the Duterte administration. Good grief!
