OFWs, Ang Ladlad and inspiration
BY DUCKY PAREDES
Noynoy the Inevitable?
JB BAYLON
‘The phenomenon that is Noynoy is bigger than Noynoy. More than Noynoy it is also all about Cory.’
SIX months before the national elections in 2010, some of the supporters of Senator Benigno S. Aquino III are feeling that his election is inevitable.
Their confidence, I suppose, stems from the fact that survey after survey indicates that voter preference is still overwhelmingly for Noynoy, about three months after his mother passed away and was buried.
Indeed, Noynoy has been a phenomenon that has left every other candidate – including former LP presidential candidate-presumptive and now Noynoy VP pick, Senator Manuel Roxas II – wondering: How do you solve a problem like Noynoy?
But not only is the answer to that question not simple; the question is itself not as simple as it seems.
The phenomenon that is Noynoy is actually something more than Noynoy, something bigger than Noynoy. It s Noynoy, yes, but more than Noynoy it is also all about Cory. Yes, to some extent it is also about Kris. To some extent it is also about GMA, as it is about Erap and Villar and Gilbert. And it is about Ninoy and Marcos and Imelda and FVR and Enrile and Cardinal Sin, as it is about ZTE and JDV and Oakwood and Edsas 3, 2 and 1.
Now how do you “solve” all of that?
Maybe someone in the shoes of an Erap or a Gilbert or a Villar shouldn’t try to “solve” all of that, simply because one can’t. Maybe what they have to do is to understand all of that, ride along, and keep their fingers crossed that just as lightning struck the “inevitable” campaign of Mar Roxas, then lightning can just as well strike again.
Especially since voting day is still half a year away.
But can you blame people rooting for Noynoy for feeling that the suffering and death of Tita Cory became the opening that nobody could have ever imagined but many have been waiting for?
What might be interesting to do is to start a guessing game as to who gets what appointive position in a Noynoy Aquino administration. Who will be members of the Cabinet? What post will Mar Roxas get? Will there be a host of showbiz folks in the Cabinet? Will brother-in-law James Yap be the next sports czar? (Yes! Yes!).
The presidential race aside, there is another, even greater, inevitability in the coming 2010 polls. This to me is the recognition that the men and women who will be elected to the Senate will be those whose names have been familiar to us over the years.
Eleven senators are leaving the Senate. Of these eleven, two are facing the end of their term limits. Seven are actually seeking re-election. And there are two who are seeking other elective positions. There should have been twelve, not eleven (because the Senate has 24 members and we elect half of the Senate every three years for a term of six!); but the twelfth, Alfredo Lim, left the Senate after he decided to run for Mayor of Manila halfway through his term.
So yes, 12 seats will be up for grabs, but it is important to emphasize that the current occupants of seven of those seats are seeking to hold on to them for another six more years.
The expiring-term senators are Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. and Rodolfo Biazon. Mar Roxas is running for Vice President, while Lito Lapid is not returning to the Senate, as he will be gunning for the position of governor of Pampanga.
The expected re-electionists, on the other hand, are Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada, Jamby Madrigal, Richard Gordon, Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Santiago and Bong Revilla. If you ask me, it seems almost certain that this group of seven will be re-elected.
That leaves five seats to be contested.
But aspiring for the five seats are a host of qualified candidates including some “returning” former senators. Leading the pack is former Senate President Franklin Drilon, who is joined in the LP ticket by former senators Serge Osmeña and Ralph Recto. These three gentlemen have more than just a leg up over all the other candidates also running for the Senate. This, in turn, means that of the five seats that the re-electionists will leave available to first timers (or returnees!), then it looks like only two seats will be truly up for grabs.
And for those last two seats we have a slew of qualified candidates: Koko Pimentel, Neric Acosta, Liza Masa, Col. Ariel Querubin, Satur Ocampo, Bongbong Marcos, Riza Hontiveros Baraquel, Adel Tamano, BGen Danilo Lim, and even Ruffy Biazon and TG Guingona, to name a few.
Now who do you think will be able to grab those last two seats?