Manny-Loren?
BY DUCKY PAREDES
Manny-Loren?
DUCKY PAREDES
“It was also Loren Legarda’s misfortune that when she ran for the vice presidency in 2004, she did so with a presidential candidate taking his first leap into politics.”
The possibility of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) official candidate for Vice President running with the Nacionalista Party’s official candidate for President would bring the NPC back into the fold.
Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., on running for President in 1992 wanted to do so as a Nacionalista, which was his original party prior to the martial law years. Of course, Salvador Laurel, then running for the vice presidency, would have none of that. Thus, Danding Cojuangco formed the NPC for his own run for the presidency. (The 1992 result had Danding at third, after President Eddie Ramos and Senator Miriam Santiago. Doy Laurel was fifth, after Ramon Mitra of the LDP -- Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino --, who was fourth.)
Senators Manny Villar and Loren Legarda as president and vice president would be a formidable team. When Loren ran in 1998 and again in 2007, she took the highest votes of all the senatorial candidates. Thus, she has a solid following which can only add to Villar’s own popularity, as proven by his high ranking in every opinion poll conducted.
It was also Loren Legarda’s misfortune that when she ran for the vice presidency in 2004, she did so with a presidential candidate taking his first leap into politics. Thus, they were not prepared for the cheating and ballot count manipulation that took the victory from FPJ and Loren and gave it to Gloria Arroyo. This time around Loren will be running with a seasoned politician whose core of advisers are wise to the ways of Philippine electoral politics and machinations. This time around, too, her partner would be someone who has the deepest pockets of all presidential aspirants. Thus, what happened to the ticket she joined in 2004 cannot possible happen again if she does team up with the former Senate President.
A Villar presidency, with Legarda as vice president, should have strong support from environmentalists, OFW families and business, which are the two candidates’ strong points. Long before typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng devastated the country, Loren Legarda was already a committed fighter for the environment.
Remember that Loren founded Luntiang Pilipinas in 1998 and immediately started planting trees, during a time when being an environmentalist was not yet fashionable. Luntian has planted over two million trees all over the country, in the process winning accolades from the United Nations’ Environmental Program (UNEP).
As the UN Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Mitigation, Loren has also been warning about the country’s lack of preparedness to respond to the effects of natural calamities such as Ondoy, which swamped Metro Manila, and Pepeng, which made a veritable sea of the province of Pangasinan. Hers was a voice lost in the wilderness nurtured by the apathy of our governments’ leaders.
Loren and Manny have also been at the forefront of pro-OFW campaigns, bringing home countless runaway OFWs who had been abused by their employers and who had sought refuge at our embassies and consulates.
They also strike common ground on the primary problems of the majority of Filipinos, namely grinding poverty, and the lack of access to health care and education, among others.
Of late, Loren had chosen to stay on the sidelines as the other politicians announce their candidacies for president or vice president, although at one time she had received feelers to be the vice presidential running mate of at least five presidentiables.
Loren is definitely presidential timber. She could have run for the presidency; now, as the lone female candidate, she may be the "man to beat" for the vice presidency.
Unlike in 2004, when her presidential candidate was so popular in his own right that he hardly needed anyone to give him any boost, this time around, in her second attempt at the vice presidency, Loren will actually be a big help to Manny Villar’s candidacy.
Don’t look now but the paired candidacy of Gibo and Edu for the administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD party and that of Noynoy and Mar in the Liberal Party is seen by UAAP fans as another competition in the rivalry between Ateneo and La Salle.
This became so because when he announced that Edu would be his vice president, Gilberto Teodoro made special mention of the fact that Edu was his friend and schoolmate from De La Salle.
Of course, it is no secret that Benigno Aquino III and Manuel A. Roxas II are from the blue and white school in Loyola Heights, which is the main competitor in sports of the green and white school on Taft Avenue. Let the games begin.
In the United States, Thomas R. Marshall, who was vice president under Woodrow Wilson, said this about the office: "Being vice president is comparable to a man in a cataleptic fit; he cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on, but has no part in it."
That was the way it was when Diosdado Macapagal was Vice President to Carlos Garcia who was himself a former Vice President to Ramon Magsaysay who died in office. Having ran as vice president in another presidential candidate’s ticket, Cong Dadong was not given any job under President Garcia.
Originally, the post for a vice president was to preside over the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The big change was when President Joseph Estrada gave his "outsider" VP from another political party – Gloria Arroyo -- a cabinet post, which allowed her to maneuver against the popular Erap and eventually forced Estrada out of Malacanang.
"The future will be better tomorrow."
"What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is."
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
"I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican." -- Dan Quayle quotes (American 44th US Vice President under George Bush (1989-93)
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