Thursday, June 07, 2007 Wenceslao: Command votes By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
I WAS, I would say, Team Unity-ed. My bold prediction on the result of the senatorial elections was off the mark.
Blame that on this theory about “command votes.” I leaned too much on that I didn’t reckon it could end up being a mirage. So Genuine Opposition bets got instead most of the 12 Senate seats up for grabs in last May 14.
It was like this. Team Unity, on paper, had many incumbent local government officials in the country, from governors down to the barangay captains, on its side. With a big chunk of voters in a semi-feudal setup dependent on sample ballots given to them by their leaders, administration bets seemed to have the edge in the last senatorial race.
Turned out support of incumbent local officials for Team Unity bets was shaky.
That 12-0 goal in favor of administration bets was doomed from the start. Officials had many variations of mixed slates. Opposition senatorial bets like Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson, etc. were able to punch holes into the “command votes” balloon.
Take Cebu Province and Cebu City. Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia did not support senatorial bet Jamalul Kiram because his political party supported the governor’s rival. Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, meanwhile, supported Legarda and Lacson. Winners of the elections in Cebu were thus a mixed bag.
Team Unity bets can’t win with a mixed bag, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao, because GO candidates were expected to steamroll them in the National Capital Region and other parts of Luzon, known opposition bailiwicks. They needed to have a bigger margin to offset the opposition’s expected lead in Luzon.
Consider, say, Miguel Zubiri and Ralph Recto, who trailed Genuine Opposition’s Antonio Trillanes and Koko Pimentel for the last two senatorial spots. These Team Unity candidates could have overtaken the two had the command votes worked. Trillanes and Pimentel obviously got the votes even in supposed administration bailiwicks.
But all that is past. I have no objection to the GO bets who won, save for Alan Peter Cayetano and Trillanes. The former is noisy like an empty can while the latter is a poor copy of Gringo Honasan.
TEXTREAX. From RK Araw-araw of Pardo, Cebu City: Your observation on Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s mercurial character is 101 percent correct.
Unfortunately, we have to live with it in the next 144 weeks or so. I pity the children who have become collateral damage in Osmeña’s PDA or public display of arrogance.
