Santos: Albee's game a baloney!

VICE presidential candidate Mar Roxas has my sympathies. His steady decline in the surveys, after being ahead of the pack immediately after his team-up with Aquino, can only be the result of his acceptance, nay, volunteering, to play second fiddle to Noynoy. Even his marriage to Korina Sanchez, obviously in an effort to cash in on the latter's celebrity status, didn't do much to peak up his ratings.

By taking a subordinate role, after aiming for the presidency, since he topped the senatorial race (six years ago), can only be taken as lack of courage, a virtue that is a sine qua non to one who would be president. And if, far lack of courage, he is unworthy of the presidency, certainly he is also unworthy for the vice-presidency.

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Perhaps, Edu Manzano, who once disarmed, though unarmed himself, a security guard during one of his anti-piracy raids while chairman of the Optical Media Board, is better qualified. Even Manzano's running for vice president is an act of courage. He is the least academically equipped. If he wins, he can be the president if the fates will it.

Is he intimidated by this possibility? Definitely he isn't. Manzano has the courage to dare, and to paraphrase the Parliament of the streets, Manzano dares to run and dares to win, unlike Roxas.

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The developing consensus is that the presidential wannabe, Gibo Teodoro, is the most qualified. His academic qualification surpasses that of the others. His preparation for the presidency is likewise excellent. Congressman for two terms, defense secretary for a couple of years, Teodoro can well claim that he is better prepared to confront the fratricidal conflict now tearing the country apart.

Yet, it is likewise the consensus that Teodoro cannot win. And it is not only because, being the administration candidate, Gloria Macapagal's unpopularity is like an albatross on his back, but because he himself does not have the bobbysox image of Chit Escudero or the Ninoy-Cory magic that surrounds Noynoy Aquino, or Joseph Estrada's celluloid's attraction. Or even Bing Leonardia's beautiful eyes and posed smile. Even in his speeches, Teodoro is not given to bombast. He simply presents his hopes for the country in the cold and dispassionate manner of a college lecturer.

And yet, of all of them, it is Teodoro who really talks sense. What a pity.

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The audacity of some candidates astounds me. With no track record, with no credit to their names except that they have plenty of money to burn, they dare ask the electorate to vote for them. What a nerve!

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Take Albee Binetez, the congressional candidate in the third district for example. Except for his being a Bantug, he is hardly known even in his mother's hometown of Victorias as he had not done anything there that can be taken to mean he is relevant to the district he aims to represent. The most that he can point to is a foundation named after his late mother, Betty Bantug. I think it's about time Albee tells us how many in Victorias have been recipients of this foundation, or for that matter, the residents of the entire district. His list of credits, include BINGO Bonanza, a numbers game that preys on the few pesos the poor still have in their pockets. He now claims that his Bingo Bonanza had earned millions, I suppose to bolster his image as an entrepreneur. Assuming that his BINGO Bonanza had given the poor livelihood instead of robbing them of the few pesos in bets, this numbers game is mainly based in Cagayan where the millions have been raked. How about the third district, which he now claims to love so much that, he wants to represent it in Congress? Baloney!