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Friday, March 29, 2024

The morning after

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Let’s hope BBM uses his huge political capital well.

We just went through another milestone last Monday when the country went to the polls to elect a new President. We have been doing this since 1935 with some interruptions like war and martial law. The vibrancy and fervor in which we conducted the campaign and the traditional “miting de avance” is a healthy sign that our democratic traditions are alive and well.

This is notwithstanding the many problems that we always encounter every time we have elections which we somehow always find ways to get over with after the vote. The big challenge now is how to navigate the next six years so that the country can move forward. We of course, do not yet have the final results but all indications point to BBM and his running winning by a landslide victory.

It is in the national results that the wait is longer. It appears that the results have very little deviations from the survey projections prior to the elections. BBM and Sara are on the verge of a historic win that will break all records since we started our multi-party system. They will be the first team to emerge with more than 50 percent of the votes. That is a humongous political capital to start a government.

Some of the losing presidential and vice-presidential candidates already congratulated and conceded the election to the emerging winners. With this apparent resounding victory however, one thing that I have observed the morning after is that instead of the nation being in a celebratory mode, the atmosphere appeared to be subdued. With the kind of lead that the UniTeam has over the others, one would think of street jubilations but there was nothing of that sort except silence and guarded statements. The stock exchange even lost ground instead of gaining.

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A bad omen? Perhaps, everyone is trying to reflect on what just happened and asking the question: what now?

And this is a fair question to ask for the victors, fence sitters and those opposed. For one thing, I do not think that it will be business as usual with a UniTeam administration. Change is in the air and it is but proper for everyone to reflect on this and prepare for adjustments.

In the Senate race, the biggest surprise is that movie actor Robin Padilla is leading the pack according to the initial unofficial returns. With Jinggoy Estrada also within the so-called Magic 12 at the moment, we might be having two movie personalities in the Senate. The public doesn’t seem to tire of electing film artists to public office. It does also look that we will be seeing an eclectic group of 12 new senators being elected composed of two pairs of siblings and other backgrounds.

Some of the old guards appear to be struggling to get into the Magic 12 and many of them will almost certainly not make it. For the first time in recent political memory, we have a current president who did not openly endorse a successor. President Duterte cannot seem to make up his mind whether to endorse or not. He ended up not doing it.

At a glance, we will have a president who will take office not beholden to his predecessor much like former President Joseph Estrada who was elected in spite of not being endorsed by him. Whether this means anything at all is hard to say. Perhaps, it does not really matter.

So, if it is BBM who will eventually be proclaimed, what sort of government can we really expect? Any answer to this question will be purely speculative. We can only hazard an educated guess when the appointments to his cabinet and advisers will be made public. But right now, speculation will not really help at all so again, we have to be patient and wait. During the campaign, BBM’s main message was unity. He stressed his desire to unify the country. He did not go into specifics but he realized early on that in order for him to succeed as president, he needs to unify a fractured and divided country. For one, it will nip in the bud any attempt by any group to create a situation that will make it hard for BBM to govern.

It is therefore imperative that this should be the focus on his first day in office to convince and make the masses believe that he is the president of all Filipinos. No president in recent memory has won the presidency with more than 50 per cent of the votes as BBM appears poised to accomplish. He will be our first majority president. Let’s hope he uses this huge political capital well for the good of all the people.

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