TELL me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”
That maxim should partly explain why Vice President Jejomar Binay is having problems getting a running mate when this wannabe president eyes 2016.
He has sought the likes of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Sen. Grace Poe.
But they’ve also declined.
Duterte may be a newbie for a national post, but running second for Binay seems no alternative. Davao’s anti-crime crusader playing footsie with a multi-graft suspect?
No wonder the snub.
So, consider a convicted plunderer? But to this very day, Estrada protests the conviction; the accusation and conviction were rigged, he says.
Teaming up with the multi-graft suspect will only prove that birds of the same feather do flock together. Besides, can a president be willing to play second fiddle?
Once upon a time, the multi-graft suspect considered newbie senator Grace Poe. But she said no. She’s more at home with Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, her fellow independent candidate in the 2013 elections.
And then Binay did the inexcusable; he warned voters against “inexperienced” candidates. He meant Poe, of course.
The warning fell like a dud. In 1986, people swelled into a power force, totally rejecting the squid tactic from then president Ferdinand Marcos and his minions.
They rallied behind their so-called “walang alam” widow and pushed her, despite her reluctance, to the presidency. Her victory sent Marcos and family scampering to Hawaii for safety, together with their ill-gotten wealth.
As if tagging Poe as “inexperienced” were not bad enough, Binay proceeded to do the unforgivable; through his minions of course, particularly top hatchet man Rep. Tobias Tiangco of Navotas and interim president of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance party.
Yes, the same grandstanding Tobias in whom descriptions like “cocky” and “spoiled brat” find meaning.
In successive rug-pulling moves, UNA questioned Poe’s dual citizenship and residency.
By May 2016, Poe shall have been Philippine resident for only 9.5 years, Tiongco says; thus, she’s not qualified for the presidency or vice presidency which requires at least 10 years.
We should not even be surprised if activating the rumor mills about the Marcos parentage of Grace Poe was UNA-instigated.
Wow! They’re really scraping the bottom of the pot. Since the “inexperience” taunt failed, now it’s the citizenship and residency capers? The moves reek of desperation.
Fortunately, Poe is a steel magnolia, exhibiting a no-nonsense approach to her work plus a steel will. The same one that presented the draft findings on the Mamasapano investigations, and signed the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee report on the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Parking Building.
Asked about the recent issues hurled at her, Poe shot back, “I would rather have that issue than plunder or anything else to defend myself… Importante tignan mo ‘yung pagkatao. Magaling ba sa trabaho? Masipag ba? Wala bang kaso na plunder?”
She continued, “Ang layo po talaga ng kanilang ginastos.” Its total cost was P 2.3 billion when it should have been only P800 million.
Hala, Binay, tubaga kono na!