Becoming a president, a wise man once said and I believe him, is not destiny. One may aim for it but there is no assurance that one can snag it in one’s lifetime. That is the promise of liberal democracy. Who would have thought, for example, that Corazon Aquino and not her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., would become president?
After Ferdinand Marcos Sr. made himself a dictator until “people power* ousted him in 1986, the 1987 Constitution that replaced the one written in 1935, of course, changed a bit the path that the ambitious would follow to the presidency. Members of the Constitutional Commission made populism a guide to the presidency. This allowed popular candidates, like the showbiz types or the scions of political clans, to gain an edge in the balloting. So who would have thought that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. or Bongbong Marcos would become president.
The Marcoses, of course, gained a fanatical following in the two decades of dictatorial rule. And the current political setup favors those with fanatical following over those with intellectual supporters. Thus, even with liberals like Cory and her son Noynoy in the presidency, the Marcos loyalists continued to be a political force in the country. But the loyalists were, for a time, outnumbered by the more progressive elements until they united with the fanatical followers of former president Rodrigo Duterte to form the Uniteam that elected Bongbong Marcos as president and his running mate, Sara Duterte, as vice president. The idea was to have Marcos as president first. He would then be succeeded by Duterte’s daughter Sara.
But with the current split of the Uniteam into Marcos loyalists and Diehard Duterte Supporters or DDS, will the plan play out in 2028? Will Sara be the country’s next president? We can’t be sure, of course. But the current political setup does favor a Sara Duterte candidacy for president. The forging of alliances will, however, be crucial for that to come to fruition.
Unlike in past elections, however, new technology has made the next elections also difficult to win without one having a fanatical base. Social media was crucial in marginalizing the progressives and the liberals in the elections. Supporters of former president Noynoy Aquino were demonized in various social media platforms, making the “dilawan” word sound bad. Leni Robredo wisely chose the color pink in her run for the presidency, with Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte fanatics coining a new pejorative term, “pinklawan.”
Can the liberals and the progressives make a difference in 2028? Will they have a chance in electing one of its own to the presidency? The point is that with the breakup of the Uniteam and the early exposure of the excesses committed by those in power, the chances of the pinklawans in the 2028 elections have broadened. The problem is that there are still many things that the progressives and the liberals should learn, like the forging of alliances and the effective use of social media.