AS I penned this, vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo continued to be ahead of Bongbong Marcos as of 2:53 p.m. This, with 96.12 percent of the election returns counted in the partial and unofficial tally.
This is very happy news for me. My vote may not have won the presidency for Mar Roxas but at least, so far, his running mate will be in.
Expectedly, Senator Marcos is waving the protest flag about the election results being rigged in favor of Robredo. But that’s like the pot screaming about the kettle’s bottom black.
He cried, “Vigilance! The integrity of the results is in danger.” Amazing how such squeaking can come from the scion of a family against whom the whole Comelec revolted in the 1986 presidential elections.
Besides, there was nary a report of goons and guns milling in or around polling precincts. Someone found amazing that the concept of goons is even lost on the millennials.
Fortunately, too, for Marcos, Robredo’s discreet and not an eager beaver. No victory claims yet until the lead is consistent till the end of tallying.
I admire Grace Poe for conceding fast when the chase seemed insurmountable. But she must be regretting the day she turned down the offer to be the Liberal Party’s VP candidate.
Otherwise, she could have gotten Robredo’s 14 M votes plus her own 9 M votes, easily outnumbering Rodrigo Duterte’s 16 M votes.
Robredo’s votes wouldn’t have gone to Bongbong Marcos, and her own 9 M votes for the presidency would have stuck with her, even as VP candidate.
Already there is a lot of data analytics about deciding to run. And Robredo had to be wooed a number of times and when finally the election results. My off-the-cuff observation--being a reluctant candidate is a magnet for people to root for you.
Non-politician Cory Aquino was one, and her son Benigno “Noynoy” was another. Then there’s Rodrigo Duterte and Leni Robredo.
Duterte showed a to-ing and fro-ing prior to finally convinced, while Robredo had to woo her own daughters about needing to run.
And look where the aggressive wannabes ended. Binay, particularly, was sure of winning, brushing the corruption charges and refusing to answer, even during the debates, the accusations of ill-gotten wealth.
Perhaps the new strategy is to beat your chest and say, “Hey, my kababayans, I’m a reluctant candidate!” The new strategy has just become, “Pugsa ko! (Forcefully convince me).
At the Chong Hua Hospital chapel, my good friend Msgr. Achilles Dakay delivered a very powerful homily. Touching on the topic “Love One Another” and relating it to the May 9 elections, he reminded everyone that voting for “the lesser evil” was still “voting for evil.”
He reiterated the message of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that it was all right not to vote for any of the presidential candidates if one felt no one deserved his/her vote.
However, over 16 M have found Duterte deserving. So I’ll watch with bated breath and support him with prayers. May the Force be with him!
Duterte cursed Pope Francis, dared CBCP’s Archbishop Villegas to go to hell, and behaved devil-may-care about the Catholic vote, and the presidency.
He’s long past reluctant candidate. Let him dare disappoint them. From the internet was this question “What’s the blood type of the presidential candidates?” Answer: “Roxas, royal blood. Poe, half-blood. Santiago, high blood. Duterte, cold blood. Binay, dinuguan.”
That pun was obviously from a Mar Roxas supporter and a rabid Jejomar Binay critic.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)