THERE may only be three candidates who have officially declared that they are seeking the highest office in the Philippines, but as of press time, it may be (at least) a six-way fight for the position of vice president for the May 2016 Philippine Elections.
The Liberal Party has found a co-pilot for Sec. Mar Roxas in his quest to stir the Philippine government toward “Daang Matuwid”: Cong. Leni Robredo. The reluctant widow of the much beloved DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo has finally embraced her new calling, after getting the blessings of her daughters who were opposed to her running for higher office.
The Robredos’ eldest daughter Aika posted a quote on social media that somehow encapsulates why the family decided to heed the calling for Leni to run for VP: “‘It’s impt, Dumbledore said, to fight & fight again, & keep fighting. For only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.’”
Sen. Chiz Escudero, long time friend of presidential polls frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe, has been on board with Poe from the beginning and the two are running as Independents while seeking the support of other parties.
As of press time, VP Jejomar Binay – who is running under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) – is still in a quandary over who will be his running mate, after failing to get the “matamis na OO” from Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Though it has been much publicized that the Binay-Marcos tandem has been shaping up, the Marcos camp reportedly decided that it would be to their candidate’s best political interest to abandon such option because of Binay’s diminishing approval and trust rating in recent polls, following corruption allegations against him and his family.
As of press time, the UNA camp has reportedly been wooing Sen. Gringo Honasan to be his running mate.
Sen. Bongbong Marcos has decided to run on his own without a president, although he has reportedly been seeking to be in tandem with Rodrigo Duterte, if the popular Davao City Mayor decides to join the race to Malacanang.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is another VP candidate who has been waiting to run with Duterte, having announced his own VP bid in Davao City, with Duterte “almost” endorsing Cayetano when in effect he said Cayetano could beat all other VP bets.
Finally, there is Sen. Antonio Trillanes, another VP-wannabe running without a president.
This VP race that is getting to be more crowded than the presidential race is something absurd for us Fil-Ams who vote here in the United States. Here in America, the presidential and the vice presidential candidates of each party run and campaign together as a “team”. A vote for one is the vote for the other.
When a tandem wins, the president and the VP work together to fulfill their campaign promises to the people, guided by their collective ideological and philosophical rationale in their quest for public office.
In contrast, candidates for president and vice president in the Philippines may run together or as independents. The emerging winners for the two top posts of the executive branch of government may come from two opposing parties. Ergo, history has proven time and time again how this set up has caused the president and the VP to work against each other and not together in performing their duties for the country.
I wonder when this will ever change. I hope the Philippine Constitution will be amended so that the president and VP may really work together for the Filipino people; to make this happen, the election laws should mandate that a vote for the president means a vote for the vice president counterpart.
In the meantime, who are you inclined to vote for the position of vice president: Leni Robredo, Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos, Antonio Trillanes or Gringo Honasan?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
Sen. Alan Cayetano is the best for VP.
Alan Cayetano for the win!