LAST week, the united Lakas-CMD – Kampi political parties announced that because he continued to top survey ratings, Vice President Noli de Castro was the number one choice as their 2010 presidential standard bearer.

While it is understandable for politicos belonging to President Arroyo’s party and to traditional politicians within Lakas-CMD to place their bets on a “llamado”, it is this attitude among the Administration allies that makes me look elsewhere for guidance on whom to vote for in May 2010.

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Of course VP de Castro looks like a winner, if one were to judge from the surveys. But is he the best potential leader for the country within the ranks of Kampi and Lakas? What performance and leadership qualities has he displayed during his past term as the second-in-command to President GMA? Has he shown grit and courage under fire? When were the occasions when he exhibited a capacity to exercise executive initiative which would indicate that he knows whereof he wants to lead the country to? Why is there no pronouncement from his party and political mates regarding these? Why only survey results?
 
In fairness to the Vice President, he may indeed be eminently qualified to become the next president of the Philippines. Very few of us know him that well to make an intelligent judgment, and that includes yours truly. But how can we when his party-mates only trumpet his popularity among the masses?
 
It is this trapo attitude in nominating candidates that has given us no other option but to choose from between a perceived evil and a lesser evil.  It’s “winnability”, not political ability; the “lesser evil” instead of the “most qualified to lead”. They do not give us the best-of-the best, the first-among-equals.  Instead of working to make the most qualified candidate win, they will throw in the most popular, because it is less work to make him win. But after he gets elected, what?
 
This is trapo politics. This is what we should rid ourselves of in 2010.

Trapo politics has deprived us of great leaders. We no longer have the Claro M. Rectos, the Ramon Magsaysays, the Jovito Salongas, the Pepe Dioknos. No shining lights, just sputtering movie stars; no white knights with flaming swords, rather knaves on donkeys (...okay, Fortuners and Expeditions); no stentorian voices in government, just blustery bluffers no one believes in. They’ve turned us into a nation that the rest of the world is leaving behind. We do not need more of these.