The smoke and the acrid smell of the fireworks had not yet settled when we were greeted by the results of the Pulse Asia survey of the possible presidential and vice-presidential bets in 2022 as we woke up on New Year’s Day. We have yet to see a single arm officially inoculated in our country to defeat the coronavirus and we are already threatened by the worst kind of pandemic—the election virus. The pandemic is still very much with us with the numbers expected to surge after the holidays. The presidential election, to us Filipinos, is like opium—it gives us a hallucinogenic effect, which makes us forget our problems and sufferings. Soon, the political carnival is here again. After June this year, there will be frenetic political activities in preparation for the filing of certificates of candidacies for the 2022 elections, both local and national offices. Election isn’t our national pastime where rival candidates vie for political power, pelt, popularity and prestige. Let’s hope that life is back to normal by then.
Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte led the list of presidentiables if elections were held during the polling period. She garnered the support of 26 percent of the people polled. Sen. Grace Poe and former Sen. Bongbong Marcos collected 14 percent each, with Mayor Isko Moreno getting 12 percent. Sen. Manny Pacquiao received 10 percent. Surprisingly, Vice President Leni Robredo only got 8 percent and the other probables whose names are mentioned in the presidential derby like Senators Ping Lacson, Dick Gordon, and Bong Go did not figure prominently in the survey. In the vice-presidential contest, the survey showed that Mayor Isko Moreno is ahead of the pack. He is closely followed by Mayor Sara and Senate President Vicente Sotto III. The margins among them are slim that they actually tied statistically for the post.
The survey was based on a poll conducted on November 23 to December 2, 2020 over a sample of 2,400 adult respondents. It has a +/- error margin and the first survey published on the 2022 elections.
Mayor Duterte reacted by saying that right now the 2022 presidential election is farthest from the minds of the Filipinos. That may be so, but it’s the thing closest to the hearts of the ambitious politicians hankering for the coveted position. It’s the subject preoccupying the thoughts of political pundits and kingmakers who crave to see their anointed candidate capture Malacañang. Mayor Sara also requested that her name be stricken out from the list of probable presidential candidates in any future surveys to be conducted. It must be recalled that President Duterte, who also got a strong following in the early surveys conducted before the 2016 election, had been denying that he was running for president. Former Vice President Jojo Binay’s lesson is too soon to be forgotten. If you declare yourself too early in the game, the early comer shall draw the unsolicited attention, disparagement and attack from all opposing sectors. In fact, President Duterte did not file his certificate of candidacy within the reglementary period for filing such certificate. He was the last in the field to join the presidential contest by eventually substituting a partymate, now DILG Undersecretary Martin B. Diño, who had duly filed his candidacy for president in the 2016 elections. It might have been pre-planned to divert enemies’ attention but it was a masterstroke. Frontrunners Binay and Sen. Grace Poe had been mugged and bashed by the opposition when President Duterte joined the fray. Even during the rounds of debates, he did not get the most depraved denunciation like Binay for alleged corruption and Poe for being non-Filipino. The issue is: Will the alleged sins of her father visit upon Mayor Sara?
Other than Mayor Sara, another city mayor, Yorme Isko Moreno of Manila, scored notably on the survey. For the presidential derby, Yorme placed 4th and ahead of Senator Manny Pacquiao but he topped the vice-presidential bets. Yorme is a populist mayor and pursues programs that are strongly pro-people. He is a very visible politician who personally attends to problems on the ground. His leadership style and decisive actions to remove Manila’s eyesores, clear the streets of illegal hawkers and address the woes brought by the pandemic have attracted large following not only in his beloved city but also around the country. The Iskomania fever has infected the country wondering whether his newly found status and popularity is enough for the people to vote for him to a national office. Another young hopeful is Sen. Bong Go who may be considered a political upstart compared to other seasoned and veteran public servants who are seeking the presidency. If Mayor Sara and company are concerned that they are still young and inexperienced to run for a higher office, a young Black-American senator from Illinois with barely a two-year service in the US Senate with a funny name Barack Hussein Obama was once struggling whether he would run for the presidency or not. He was hesitant to wade into the presidential water but his elder colleagues in the Senate who he thought had more rights to seek the office gave him encouragement. Sen.Harry Reid, then the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the current Senate Minority Leader and Sen. Dick Durbin, the senior senator of his own state, delivered the same message—that he should run and that he had a chance of winning. Ultimately Obama sought the counsel of the heir of the most famous political family in the US, Sen. Ted Kennedy. Four and a half years after leaving the White House, Obama could still remember every word of what Senator Kennedy told him. “I won’t be wading early. Too many friends. But I can tell you this, Barack. The power to inspire is rare. Moments like this are rare. You think you may not be ready, that you’ll do it at a more convenient time. But you don’t choose the time. The time chooses you. Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by.”
Sara, Yorme, Bong and others out there who feel that their heart beats in unison with the pulse of our people, remember this: “Time waits for no man.” Good luck!
1 comment
let the government postpone the election in the mean time, not until people or majority of voting population is injected with anti covid virus
vaccine, forget politics, life is precious than being the leader of a nation
with population in danger of being annihilated by devil brought pandemic. It is in the name “pandemonio” events.
let us hope and obey the message brought by events.