Even hours before the national executive committee of the merged Lakas-Kampi would have voted secretly, 42-5 in favor of Gibo, former colleagues from the House of Representatives of defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro already served advance notice that he will be the party’s standard bearer. Not a BF. Therefore, as so it is said, so it shall be done and done it was. Left in the cold, BF will not be his own man.
BF’s long-time investment as loyal to the party since 1992 did not pay off. On the other end of the scale, a newly recruited one-month old party member in the person of Gibo earned him a fortune far greater than what he has invested by way of rate of return. Therefore, Gibo may have just violated cardinal party norms in the unseen process. But so be it.
This comeuppance is telling. Call to mind that Mar, the president of the Liberal Party suffered the same fate when he himself has to give way to a Noynoy Aquino simply because the latter asked for it perhaps so cavalierly. Within the Nationalist People’s Coalition itself, it has been a political tug of war between a Chiz and a Loren.
As events unfold in the political landscape, it is even more telling to now find a Noynoy on one end of the spectrum and a Gibo on the other hand – as they are cousins on the side of the Cojuangcos. Does this happenstance come as a departure from the vicious invasion of the phenomenon that we call ‘political families’, dynasty if you will? Plainly, it is. Not to be taken for granted is the fact that Noynoy, in case he wins is a son of a former president just like GMA.
History repeats itself, come to think of it. We have GMA as older generations also had DM (Diosdado Macapagal). Just as we had Cory, would we have a Noynoy as if we wish to ‘overextend’ the term of Cory? The same holds for GMA if it were already the negative version of a once ‘better’ president in the person of her father. It is for history to also attest more accurately as to the real score in the political topography of their respective historical periods.
Who did not say that for every action, there is a corresponding counter-action? This is what resulted in the selection process of the merged administration party from the point of view of former Speaker Jose de Venecia as he posited it to be illegal, null and void. Certainly, he believes that Gibo was not elected by a ‘legit group’ but rather by a ‘cabal of limited few’.
Facts are indubitably clear. There was not a convention held for the purpose to be participated in by as much number as possible in order to really represent the sentiment of the party at large. But then again, one can just as quickly dismissed this whole fiasco as one of ‘intra-party’ feuds but would be more likely veer away from truth.
Events that recently unfolded such as the Noynoy fresh-from-the-40th-day grief play dramatic and this Gibo marathon drama hatched exceedingly quick. It most wantonly displaced BF whose belief in loyalty to the party as the highest premium has been betrayed. After all, he is not a member of this so-called “Old Boys Club’ that my former boss, Prospero Pichay has always bragged about.
To bank of party machinery is old-fashioned thinking. JDV failed on it dismally when he run for president and so too with Gibo, most predictably. Comparatively, Gibo is even made of lesser stuff in terms of overall statesmanship, so he just might be holding on the wrong rope. But a lot more interfacing realities are cracked open this time that Gibo is being launched as the presidential candidate to beat. Why?
Gibo will be joined by DILG Puno in a perceptibly ideal tandem. Will it work? What does that publicly express from the point of view of impact analysis or the Lakatosian futuristic programmes? Well, we can see the rearing of some ugly heads – the armed might of not just the Armed Forces of the Philippines but more so with the armed might of the Philippine National Police. There is reason to be scared given the perceived orientation of a Gibo to allow a kinder if kids’ glove treatment for a GMA post-presidential term immunity.
Now that Bayani lost his precious bid to walk out with an empty bag, what else is new? BF would have wished, as he did appeal, that all party members should have been allowed to choose and not just by a the committee. How the party proceeded with this selection is a public statement itself that again, there must have been a ‘lapse in judgment’ as it did crack open some potential legal disputes in its exercise. At bottom, the democratic criterion has been subverted.
There seems to be one last route to tread for BF to bolt the party he gave all his loyal trust on. In fact, he was the first to signify his intention to run for president and this one of Gibo is uncharacteristically too belated. After all, BF says he is “desidido, pursigid, diretso, tatakbo”. Just like FVR, perhaps, history is lamp post for BF to run under the best and last available option he deems best.
It cannot be taken for granted that someone worked behind the scene to let this scenario unfold. And the man we publicly know as the kingmaker is this time’s next to the king himself. If that bears fruit, let come what will. BF may well have to leave it to the electorate to decide.