DID you know... that President elect Donald Trump is 70 to President Rodrigo Duterte’s 71? Did you notice that the two men are of an age and share some, uh, other characteristics? Of course you do. This is because they’re in two words, karmic twins.
I first write of Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and George W. Bush as karmic twins way back in 2001. This is the year that then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ascends to her first presidential term by virtue of what is then called “EDSA dos” – a people power movement that tries unsuccessfully to mimic the real deal EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986. Said ascension to a presidency is suspicious, as is George W. Bush’s itself, under allegations of election fraud in Florida -- remember that in 2000?
Odd bits: Both Arroyo and Bush are of an age, the former born in 1947 and the latter in 1946. Just like between Duterte and Trump, the American is older by a year. Both Bush and Arroyo have fathers who have been presidents, the older George Bush and Diosdado Macapagal. Strange.
Fast forward to 2008. The USA’s heir apparent to their presidency is Hillary Clinton, an obvious choice, if you will, the golden haired girl. But from nowhere comes a Barack Obama, young and new and just suddenly there, upsetting the whole political picture, and getting the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton. In 2010, the same thing happens in the Philippines. The obvious heir apparent, the golden boy, if you will, Mar Roxas, is dislodged from the picture by Benigno Aquino who is chosen as the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate. Both Aquino and Obama make it. Their ages, like between Bush and Arroyo and between Duterte and Trump, are a year apart. This time, the Filipino is older – Aquino is born in 1960 and Obama in 1961. Hmmm.
Now on to 2016. Mar Roxas, who has patiently waited in the wings for his friend Aquino to finish his term, goes for the presidency and bags the Liberal party nomination. Hillary Clinton, who has likewise waited in the wings for Obama to finish his two terms, bags the Democratic Party nomination for president. Clinton and Obama are by this time around seasoned government servants, each having worked in various posts in their respective bureaucracies. Each has experience and track record, some good and some bad, working and not working for them in the 2016 runs.
Then the unlikely happens. In the Philippines, a tough-talking, politically incorrect, shoot-from-the-hip, stubbornly off script, and what else have you character comes from out of the woodwork to win the presidency. I’m thinking, even as it happens and there’s Trump talk going around, hmmm hmmm, will this history of karmic twins repeat itself? So guess what happens. It does.
So that’s why Trump. Weird or what.