If you think there isn’t anyone who’s worth voting for President in 2016, you are not alone. Like many others, we are not sanguine there’s someone out there who can really lead this nation. Grace Poe’s citizenship is constitutionally challenged, Jojo Binay is facing a raft of graft charges, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has serious health concerns, while Mar Roxas is strait-jacketed from thinking out of B.S. Aquino’s box
The political landscape is barren as seen from the surfeit of sanity-challenged candidates, including someone named Lucifer, who filed their CoC’s for president at the Commission on Elections last October.
Some senatorial candidates are not household names even in their own households. Choosing the senatorial candidates shared as “guests” by both Liberal Party and the United Nationalist Alliance, including the independents, is something voters must still seriously consider, A few good men in the Senate still makes it the last keeper of the gate against flawed legislation from the Lower House.
I have my own choices but I’m not suggesting they should also be yours. Here are the candidates that come to mind whom I think will be worthy of the title “Senator:” Former senator and Food Security Presidential Assistant Francis Pangilinan, reelectionist Senators Serge Osmeña and Ralph Recto, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, Philippine National Red Cross chairman and former Senator Dick Gordon, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, former Senator Panfilo Lacson, and workers welfare advocate Susan “Toots” Ople. I only came up with a short list of eight unable to think of anyone else for the vacant 12 Senate seats.
We are witnessing a new dynamics in Philippine politics when candidates are shared by two or three parties. This is unheard of in other countries. In the United States, the difference between Democrats and Republicans are well defined. So too, with the Conservatives and Labor parties in the United Kingdom.
The crazy free-for all practice in Philippine politics started in the 2013 senatorial elections. This is an erosion, if not the demise, of the two-party system which spells out platform of governance and the political ideology of aspirants for public office. This new normal also attests to the dearth of deserving and qualified candidates. The Liberal Party and United Nationalist Alliance could not complete a 12-man senatorial slate without crossing the blurred party lines. The Nacionalista Party, NPC and the PDP-Laban do not have a presidential candidate.
Today’s politics has become no more than a popularity contest. We can expect boxer Manny Pacquiao who’s more known for landing a left hook in his opponent’s jaw to land a seat in the Senate. He may be an eight-division champion but the Sarangani congressman is also top-ranked in the most number of absences in the House of Representatives whenever he’s in training for a fight. And they want him in the Senate?
At the local level, Quezon City Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista looks on the way to winning another term without any real opposition. In Manila, Congressman Amado Bagatsing could slip past incumbent Mayor Erap Estrada and returning Fred Lim. The two former friends are hurling insults at each other with Erap calling Lim a senile old man and Lim reminding voters the former president is a convicted plunderer. In Makati, Romulo “Kid” Peña has an even chance against Rep. Abigail Binay who replaced her brother as candidate when Mayor Erwin Junjun Binay was suspended and dismissed by the Ombudsman. This, for graft connected to the construction of the Makati parking building and other allegedly anomalous contracts.
In San Juan City, the Zamoras will try to break the stranglehold of the Estrada-Ejercito political clan.Vice Mayor Francis Zamora is running against incumbent Guia Gomez while his father Rep. Ronaldo Zamora is seeking reelection against Jana Ejercito. Gomez is the mother of Senator J.V. Ejercito and partner of former President Erap. The Ejercitos and the Zamoras were former political allies but parted ways when Gomez decided to seek a third and final term.
Who’s going to win the crowded vice presidential race? Rep. Leni Robredo (Camarines Sur), Senators Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan (Sorsogon) and Antonio Trillanes (Albay) who are all from Bicol will surely divide the region’s vote. While his rivals’ following is fragmented, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can count on the steadfast support of the Ilocanos’ Solid North and mother Imelda Romualdez’s Visayan votes. His stewardship of the Senate’s local government committee reviewing the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law also gained Bongbong Marcos a large following in Mindanao.