Ping and Poe met, after all

Raul Roco is back in the race. That’s what the former Education Secretary, and ex-Senator declared yesterday on arrival from treatment in the USA.

How well is Raul? The way he put it – "I am glad to report that my doctors . . . confirmed that my physical pain can be treated and kept under control" and that "there is no immediate threat to my life" – is, to be frank, a bit ambiguous.

In sum, Roco swears that his "ability to perform all the functions of public office remains unhindered." The Alyansa ng Pag-Asa presidential candidate asserted: "If blessed by the Filipino people I will serve! And I will serve well!"

Will such declarations erase public doubts about his health? Raul has admitted he is in pain, which must be kept "under control". Would this factor not distract him from the pains which afflict our nation? Being President is not just a 24-hour job, it’s man-killing (or woman-killing) undertaking.

Super-Glo may look like she’s perpetually on the go, and quite amazingly, continues to demonstrate boundless energy. But we’ve seen her, too, in moments of weariness and disappointment.

In the case of Raul, can someone who’s had to interrupt his campaign and fly off to Texas for medical treatment bear the strain, not just of a final week of catch-up campaigning – but of the Presidency, if he gets it?

In any event, we’ll have a full hour of the resurrected ex-Senator Raul Roco on IMPACT 2004 tomorrow, Friday night, competing on the same time slot with Super-tenor Andrea Bocelli at the Araneta Coliseum. However, for Bocelli you’ve got to buy tickets, while Roco Redux – lustily singing in Barong or Gumamela shirt – is free on ANC. And he, hopefully, will be able to freely – not just "live", but alive and well.

Even just to eyeball the state of Raul, which his fervent supporters fully equate with the future State of the Nation, tune in on Channel 21. (This is a commercial – mine, of course).

The reason I’m worried about Raul possibly being a "no show" is the fact that yesterday he cancelled two TV appearances he had earlier accepted and scheduled. His excuse was that he had "to rest".

Will Raul be well enough to appear on my show? Abangan.

* * *

After this column’s deadline last Tuesday night, about 10 p.m., KNP Presidential frontrunner Fernando Poe Jr. and LDP Presidential bet, Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, finally met, for just a few minutes, at a mutual friend’s house.

So I stand corrected. They met, after all, but it seems nothing much came of it. They could only agree cosmetically on forging a common front against election fraud. Neither will slide down, it’s now obvious, so that’s that. A future meeting? Meetings are always good – but the way I see it, a deal is no longer likely.

Not all the onus should be on FPJ’s side, or on that of his handlers and advisers. Thinking about Ping Lacson’s probable motives for standing pat on his presidential run, it’s clear that to slide down would require of him the supreme sacrifice of kissing his future ambitions goodbye. It comes down to this: If Lacson gave everything up, and backed FPJ to the hilt – would this move save the nation from six more years of La Gloria? That is the question.

From the standpoint of personal trajectory, this sacrifice would cost Lacson dearly. On the other hand, if he went all the way, even if he lost, sticking to his guns would at least mollify those who contributed both financially and morally to his campaign of kamay na bakal. If he loses but gets his self-declared minimum of three million votes, he can return to his Senate seat for the next three years, then run for re-election to the Senate in 2007.

If Lacson tops those Senatorial elections, he’ll be in position to run for the Presidency anew in 2010.

However, what could happen to him in the meantime, if GMA wins re-election – and Jose Pidal or the LTA Building Gang get an extension of their power? They’ll go gunning for Lacson, with everything they’ve got. "You’d be deadball" is how this writer put it to him. To which Ping replied, deadpan: "They’ve been after me for a long time. I’m getting used to it." Beware, Ping, of the shot in the dark.

As for that secret meeting Tuesday night, it apparently took even Makati Mayor Jojo Binay off-guard. Binay was roused yesterday morning by radio reporters, and it seems Jojo hadn’t known about it.

The radio interviewer said the meeting had taken place in a home in North Greenhills. (Not mine, I assure you.) "Why," one broadcaster teased Jojo, "aren’t you FPJ’s campaign manager?" Cut to the quick, Binay retorted testily, "FPJ has several campaign managers!"

And that’s right. You don’t know, really, who’s managing his campaign.

* * *

However, GMA – who’s trying to create the impression she’s winning or even, as one "poll" said, has forged a stunning ten percent ahead – can’t relax. Ronnie Poe’s drawing power remains strong, with crowds mobbing him, and his stronghold remains vote-rich Luzon. (The Visayas has almost been conceded to GMA.)

Indeed, the very fact that GMA has had to go to Pangasinan 22 times in a row shows that she’s very aware of the fact that the 1.2 million-voter province is crucial, not just numerically but symbolically, since Ronnie Poe comes from San Carlos, Pangasinan.

In fact, FPJ’s lovely wife, Susan Roces, has been campaigning up there, operating from Alaminos, Pangasinan, the other day. FPJ is due in Pangasinan soon (May 3?) where he is expected to stump for his KNP candidate Marietta Primicias-Goco, daughter of the late, great Senator Cipriano Primicias. The trouble is that some of his merry men have been courting incumbent Pangasinan Governor Victor Agbayani. How can Agbayani be expected to switch? He’s been getting all those goodies from GMA.

The truth is that GMA has been the real "comeback kid" of this topsy-turvy campaign. In the beginning, in her first sorties (with FPJ surging ahead in the poll surveys, and his popularity riding high), the President drew very sparse crowd.

I watched ANC/ABS-CBN’s Pia Hontiveros Tuesday night interviewing the Opposition KNP Senatorial candidates, and one of them, quite interestingly, accused the media of camera-bias in favor of GMA.

How’s this? Pia had inquired. Alas, I forget which Senatorial hopeful posed that objection, but what he said was significant. He had snorted: "The TV cameras in the GMA rallies kept on focusing on her and her companions on the platform, without panning over the audience. If the cameras did, they would have revealed to the televiewers how few were in the audience, listening to GMA!"

I don’t think there was so-called media-bias, unless GMA’s handlers "bought" the cooperation of both cameramen and reporters, a matter on which I have no personal knowledge on which to base any comment. On the other hand, I must say that GMA’s propagandists and campaign planners showed astute "media handling". Instead of scheduling miting de avance or "big rallies", they programmed a series of town-hall type meetings for GMA, held in municipios and barangay or town halls, rather than in plazas or open spaces

How many people can you "crowd" into a hall? Thus, there was no opportunity to "size up" a crowd, as what occurred when you were witnessing a Brother Eddie Villanueva Bangon TV evangelist-type jamboree. (Indeed, Brother Eddie has been getting interesting crowds, come to think of it.)

Now, of course, GMA seems to have caught up – and is on a roll. Remember, even if it’s neck-and-neck, La Emperadora has the Equity of the Incumbent, the Advantage of the Comelec, and the Well-Oiled, Government-Funded Machine. Does she use government funds? If you were President, could you avoid it?

Surely, she doesn’t try to avoid it.

She merely and blissfully claims she’s just doing her job – that of being President.

C’mon, FPJ. Being Da King means leading the fight. This – as they say in the Spanish corrida when the torero, naked sword in hand, holds still his cape and looks into the eyes of the bull – is "the moment of truth". In GMA’s case, from the viewpoint of gender, she can’t be equated with a toro bravo. But remember the adage, "the female is the deadlier of the species".

* * *

THE ROVING EYE . . . Senate President Franklin Drilon told me yesterday that Chairman Ben Abalos and the Commission on Elections definitely cannot hold a "quick count". That would be against the law, he declared. "Every count made by the Comelec is an official count." He warned the Comelec to be very careful in its every move, the conduct of the elections, and the counting and tabulation of the ballots. "Our people’s faith in democracy depends on how this election is conducted," he reiterated, "and if the Comelec does anything doubtful, you know what could be provoked." . . . Drilon also made a fascinating observation. He said that this is the first election he has experienced where television is playing a powerful, even a decisive role. "In the future," he predicted, "politicians will be holding fewer rallies and resorting to appearing as frequently as possible on television." Well, that’s what Frank says. Do you agree?