NO matter what they say, the Opposition cannot hide the fact that, this early, they are on the verge of utter DESPAIR as to how to go about winning the 2010 Presidential Elections! With a star-studded bench composed of Senators Ping Lacson, Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, and (surprise, surprise!), Vice Pres. Noli de Castro, the Opposition will be cracking its head as to just WHO to field, as everyone of these ‘Super Stars’ will be jockeying for a chance to ‘shoot’ for the Presidential ‘Basket’! With just ONE ring to shoot at, their SIX balls will, no doubt, be bumping each other off, to such an extent that none of their balls will get to enter the Presidential ‘Basket’! The ‘First 3’: Ping Lacson, Manny Villar, and Mar Roxas are so focused on shooting for the Presidency that it would be next to impossible to ‘tempt’ them away from it! Not even ‘Erap’, ‘The Forgiven’, can persuade them to give in to just ONE common Opposition candidate to insure a 2010 Presidential Victory. Each one of these ‘3 KINGS’ (especially ‘King’ Ping) has had their eyes on the Presidency ever since Day One of their Political ‘Career’ and it would be unthinkable for anyone of them to step down the ‘pedestal’ now that the Presidency is almost within reach!
Loren Legarda, if she is indeed wise enough, just might settle to run after the Vice-Presidential seat which eluded her in 2004. Funding a Presidential Campaign, and its aftermath, the all important COUNTING, is such a tedious Herculean undertaking which has wrecked many rising Political Stars and blasted their dreams to smithereens! Good for Loren, and those who have gone before her, they had their Senatorial Seats to catch their FALL! Bicolano Rising Star, Chiz Escudero, for his part would do well to bide his time and settle for just being a really good Senator of the People. A 2016 Run may seem far off, but a lot just might happen in the interim that just might propel him to the Presidency (or whatever it’s called by then!). Indeed for most of the above mentioned Presidentiables it looks like it’s got to be 2010 or bust; a 2016 Run is quite untenable and a lot of Political ‘Upstarts’ just might emerge from the woodwork and grab the limelight from them!
Given such a divided and topsy-turvy Political Opposition, the lone Administration Candidate just might have a walk in the park in 2010! Richard ‘Flash’ Gordon, no doubt, is now doing his homework and ‘applying for the job’, perhaps with Uncle Sam’s all important ‘backing’. M.M.D.A.’s ‘Bayani’ Fernando and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro have also been mentioned as Administration Presidentiables but they both lack the charisma, political ‘capital’, and POSITIVE background to come up with a Credible Win!
Given this cockeyed scenario there are different possibilities which everyone can hope, if not work, for:
1) The Opposition controlled Upper House (or Senate) can work for the abolition of the Multi-Party System and revert to the original 2 Party System which is a lot more credible and manageable. This way everyone can join free-for-all Party Conventions which will come up with the Presidential, Vice-Presidential, Senatorial, and local bets.
2) With more than 2 more years to go, everyone can put their heads together and come up with an acceptable and workable Charter Change which will, once and for all, put an end to these very DIVISIVE, expensive, and often bloody Presidential Elections, and settle for the more organized, less expensive, and generally more peaceful Parliamentary Elections.
3) Both Houses of Congress can work for the incorporation in the Election Code of a system by which we can have RUN-OFF elections in cases where no MAJORITY President is elected. This will of course be a bit more expensive BUT it will erase whatever doubts we might have about an elected President and give him or her the FULL support of the Majority which will prevent any divisive mass action, Coup d’états, or 5-Star Hotel Military ‘Excursions’!
4) Not being able to settle for ANY OF THE ABOVE, the last resort, which just might be cooking in some overly ambitious people’s minds, would be a DRASTIC move that would overturn the whole ‘chessboard’ and help them GRAB the reins of power and install a Civilian-Military Junta which can easily metamorphose into that much dreaded MILITARY DICTATORSHIP!
5) Such a drastic move might no longer come in the form of that now obsolete and ineffective Coup d’état but rather as a very destabilizing blitz reaction to something like ANY well known Political figure’s assassination! A ‘sacrificial lamb’ in the altar of someone’s ILLIMITABLE greed!
We cannot, thus, ignore the possibility that some perennial LOSERS might attempt to ‘steal’ the Presidency by hook or by crook given the reality that most of the cards are again stacked against them this time. If the Opposition fails to UNITE under one common Presidential Candidate, we can really expect some zany and ‘rotten’ developments to crop up which just might lead to a No Election scenario. That proposed very intriguing ‘Erap’ Presidential ‘Re-run’ in 2010 will be one of those crazy possibilities which just might, once again, prove to everyone that someone IS above the Law (or have you forgotten that zoom-zoom Plunder Pardon?)! That Ping Lacson and the rest will take this sitting down is something else that is left to be seen.
This year and the next will indeed be politically ‘explosive’ ones and no one can rest assured that everything will come out the way they planned it. Not Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, not former Pres. Fidel V. Ramos, not Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, and not even Uncle Sam. We can only pray hard that whatever happens in 2010 will be socio-economically beneficial to all, for the common good, and according to God’s Will! As an afterthought, Paul Harvey asks: If “Pro” is the opposite of “Con”, what is the opposite of “Progress”?
