MANILA
Opinion surveys here show that Vice President Jojo Binay is polling around 40 percent of people asked about their preference for president in 2016. That could be enough to get him to the presidential palace.
In a muticandidate presidential election, 40 percent could be Binay’s winning ticket. President Benigno Aquino III won 42 percent of the vote in 2010 (second-placer Joseph Estrada 26 percent), Gloria Arroyo just below 40 percent in 2004 (Fernando Poe Jr. 36.5 percent), Estrada close to 40 percent in 1998 (to Jose de Venecia’s 16 percent).
There’s no runoff election in the Philippines, a feature in multiparty countries where if no candidate garners a majority vote of at least 50 percent plus one, another round of voting takes place between the two bets with the highest number of votes.
Binay’s current 40 percent in surveys gives him the enviable position of being leader of the pack. But, actually, there’s no pack to speak of as yet. Only Binay has declared his plan to run in 2016. In effect, Binay is currently running against no one.
Still, his poll standing puts Binay in an advantageous position. Something that he and his handlers guard zealously, which is to be expected of a frontrunner.
Why is Binay in the lead? Why does he show good numbers?
Briefly, because he does nothing controversial. More correctly, because he does very little of anything. After all, he’s the vice president, the presidential spare tire.
He’s assigned tasks by the President, like overseeing the government’s housing program and carrying out special assignments pertaining to the country’s overseas workers.
But otherwise Binay does very little that might put him in trouble. To the contrary, what he does do puts him in a position where he can earn brownie points to impress the public. His assigned work affords him to be solicitous about overseas Filipino workers’ welfare. And what could go wrong with managing the government’s housing program?
And that’s it, the rest of the time he does what vice presidents do: nothing.
The vice presidency is like a spare tire and, as former US Vice President John Nance Garner commented glumly, “it ain’t worth a pitcher of warm spit.” Actually, if we think about it, all the vice president, any vice president, does is something macabre: wait for the president to die or become incapacitated.
But, handled with a deft hand, the vice presidency could lead to the next higher position, the presidency.
Which was what an earlier Filipino vice president did with success. In the 1950s Diosdado Macapagal, vice president to President Carlos P. Garcia (and Gloria Arroyo’s father), was totally ignored by Garcia, left twiddling his thumbs by his lonesome, without much of anything to do. But Macapagal put his idle time to good use: He traveled all over the country to introduce himself to the people. He won the next election hands down.
Which could be veep Binay’s good fortune too. Because he has very little to do, Binay has a lot of idle time to himself. Instead of sitting pretty, he makes himself pretty in the eyes of the people, posing for countless photo-ops to gain maximum exposure.
And that’s why his survey numbers are up. It’s a great formula for topping surveys. Do nothing controversial, put on a permanent smile, do lots of photo-ops and, voila! you lead in the polls. Naturally if you don’t do anything controversial, the people will have a benign attitude toward you.
(That’s why a current controversy over alleged overpricing of the Makati City parking/office building involving Binay is potentially disastrous for him. [He used to be mayor of Makati.] And that’s why Binay and his handlers are working hard at damage-control before the fire becomes a big conflagration. Currently, they’re pretending the controversy isn’t there. As the pithy but ungrammatical slogan goes: less talk, less mistakes.)
Contrast that to the guy in the hot seat, President Aquino. He’s on the job 24 hours a day, besieged with problems and controversy left and right, having to worry about a hundred and one issues at any given time. The people expect results. The President, any president, won’t be able to solve every problem. The consequence? Up-and-down ratings.
Against this backdrop, it’s actually amazing Aquino has maintained decent ratings. Actually, his ratings are higher than those of his predecessors at this juncture of their presidential terms.
Binay, in contrast, smiles constantly and sits pretty, and is rewarded positive ratings in the surveys.
So, want to get high ratings? Do practically nothing.
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