MANILA
After months of thinly disguised positioning for a run for higher office, Sen. Grace Poe has finally put her cards on the table, announcing her candidacy for the presidency.
The way Poe kept President Aquino twisting in the wind as he tried to get her as Mar Roxas’ vice presidential running mate has left a bad taste in the mouth. (I think it’s also inappropriate — I’m using a mild word here — of her to co-opt the Daang Matuwid brand of Mr. Aquino.) Daang Matuwid or straight path is the motto Mr. Aquino.
It was partly Aquino’s fault that it turned out the way it did. According to Poe, Aquino never asked her directly to be on a Roxas-Poe tandem. And Poe was probably too polite or deferential to directly say she wasn’t available.
But she should have been able to read the President’s purpose in meeting her (several times) without prolonging their mutual agony. As it turned out, the whole affair made Aquino’s persuasive powers look wanting.
But that is all water under the bridge. The business at hand for the President now is how to get Roxas elected. And Poe’s concern is how to overcome the massive constraints facing her: no political machinery or grassroots logistics, or money (the latter may now come in buckets from fat cats who historically place wagers on more than one candidate).
The campaign will be a struggle for Poe. Without a machinery in place (even though other parties are willing to endorse her), the campaign will be forbidding.
But she and her advisers knew that. And they obviously decided they may be able to overcome the demands of a long, arduous and expensive campaign.
Poe’s being a political greenhorn will be an issue. Indeed Vice President Jojo Binay, also running for the presidency, has already been hammering the point that the presidency is not on-the-job-training.
But I guess the impetus for Poe’s plunge is the saying, “strike while the iron is hot.” And why not indeed, she’s riding a wave of popularity right now and who knows how long the ride will last. So strike now.
Does Poe have a chance of becoming president?
She does. But it isn’t going to be easy, not a walk in the park, not a piece of cake, to get to Malacanang Palace (the president’s office and residence).
It’s early to tell how Mr. Aquino and Roxas will strategize over Poe’s entry into the presidential derby. Their supporters hope they have a contingency plan to counter Poe.
I think Binay has been neutralized by the multiple allegations of illegal activity on his part. While he still has a following out there, that has largely diminished since the exposes about him amassing illegal wealth when he was mayor of Makati City.
Each of the three candidates will have strengths and weaknesses. In the Liberal Party, Roxas will have the largest party around (as long as there are no party deserters who will join a possible Poe bandwagon), as well as the resources at the command of the administration.
Binay has his sister-city connections, the Boy Scouts (of which he is the president), and poor people who have bought into Binay’s illusory Utopia of turning the whole Philippines into a big Makati (the prosperous city where Binay was mayor for many years).
Poe will have her popularity but no machinery in place.
(Incidentally, what does it say about even the big political parties having to adopt Poe and Escudero? What kind of party is one that cannot even come up with candidates from among their own members?)
As we Filipinos have warned of every recent election being pivotal for the country’s future, 2016 again looms as key to whether the Philippines will progress or stagnate in the foreseeable future.
Roxas, Binay or Poe? The coming months until May next year will be exciting times. They can also be depressing times depending on how Fate will direct and decide the final outcome of the next presidential election.
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