“It is all about giving the people a reason to finally believe”
SARA’S detractors look at the Jojo Binay demolition template and think they can do a repeat. They found a handle in Mary Grace Piattos and used it to impeach her.
Now they will use Piattos et al. again, and even invented another “Bikoy,” this time a “Madriaga” to ante up their second attempt.
They know the chances of a Senate conviction are now unlikely, but they will milk the process to impugn her. In the case of Binay, the demolition happened in the third quarter of 2014, a year before the filing of CoCs. That was right timing, and Binay failed to respond properly.
Thus, aside from the presumptive LP candidate, Mar Roxas, in came the willing Grace Poe and the “unwilling” Rodrigo Duterte into the political “tambiolo.”
Sara’s “haters” face two obstacles: if love is lovelier the second time around, hate repeated gets less resonance (bumenta na); and two, there is hardly anybody else these days who has captured the imagination of voters.
As soon as Risa floated her availability, her support base clamored for Mayor Leni and repeated their dream of a Pink and Red coalition, with BbM titillating them through silly pink socks. Pres. Erap would have worn fuchsia (but that’s another anecdote).
All things being equal, Sara seems destined. She has already framed 2028 as Marcos 2.0 versus Duterte 2.0.
Still, it will not be a walk in the park. Fortress Bis-Min is not enough.
She does not command the resources that the administration has. But then again, her father spent so little compared to the competition in 2016 yet won, nevertheless.
She has no considerable party machinery. The PDP is a shadow of what it was in her father’s time. Her Hugpong is regional, not national.
But political parties in this country are mere flags of convenience, and Inday Sara, wisely, has not given party-building early priority. She has seen how her father ran on the strength of his own persona and how the PDP was used in 2016 because it was conveniently available.
And in declaring early on, she has drawn the line: somos o no somos.
Since poll surveys have replaced political parties in winnowing chaff from grain, she must keep her numbers high, consolidate present public support levels, and build more from different demographics.
Fortify her appeal to the young. Give the poor and middle class hope that she will be way different from the others. Verily, she is different.
She still needs to sufficiently convince the public that she will be a serious reformist despite her dynastic history. Her first post-declaration interview though generic, still differentiated her management style from the laid-back BbM. In the next year and a half, people will want more specifics.
It should start being less about hitting a government already judged as a failure.
What she must tell the Filipino public is how she can improve the plight of the ordinary man beyond the usual platitudes, beyond the usual “solutions” that have not worked.
The message box cannot be as single issue as that of her father in 2016, that without peace and order, no progress is possible.
For while PNoy improved the economy, the drug menace made people unsafe in their communities, and thus Rodrigo Duterte’s singularly strong messages resonated.
Sara is heiress to her father’s “tapang.” Police assurances notwithstanding, the reality is people no longer feel safe and secure.
In May of 2015, this writer gave “malasakit” as reason, “hugot” for Mayor Duterte’s well-known “tapang,” then commissioned an agency that created some of Villar’s memorable ads to use that tagline for Duterte.
That “Tapang at Malasakit” trademark should now be defined by structural reforms that would transform desperately hopeless lives into a “more comfortable life” that her father had hoped to bequeath.
A mountain of debt, food insecurity, not enough jobs for both brains and brawn, inability of incomes to catch up with persistent inflation, the absence of government support for basic social services, punctuated by graft and corruption that beggars all imagination in its brazenness.
There should be no stupid promises like BbM’s 20-peso rice. Instead, she should explain to the people the need for reforms in all aspects where government should weigh in, whether political, economic or social.
Her statement that government needs to tighten its belt demonstrates that resolve. Housewives know best, and one would expect that she will soon enumerate all those profligate and needless government expenditures.
She must give real flesh to “malasakit” beyond quick fixes and ayuda.
Shake up the status quo. Think out of the box.
It is all about giving the people a reason to finally believe.
