We will have an election in less than 14 months and a new President in less than 16 months, so as a citizen concerned about our country, the continuation of our economic growth, and the socio-political stability of our nation, it is time we give some thoughts on who will be our next President and Vice-President. And like most Filipinos who are "natural" kibitzers of politics, speculating on the presidential "wannabes" is always an interesting topic.
The registration dates for candidates for the 2016 elections is on October to allow the Comelec to include the candidates names in the pre- printed ballots that will be used in the computerized elections. This is just seven months away, so to have some timeline leeway considering the nationwide coverage for national candidates, the presidentiables and vice-presidentiables should start strategizing now, and we the voters should start our evaluation and analysis of these candidates.
Grace Poe have been ranking second in the last four surveys who are likely to become president. Duterte made it to the top 4 in the survey published last week. This is significant for Duterte as he had only been moving around the country to test the waters only in the last seven weeks, promoting his proposal on Federalism. Either his recent exposure triggered people's recall of his "tough guy" approach to governance issues, or people are warming up to his Federalism ideas, or both. We have to notice his double digit jump in the ratings, from single digit to 12%. Grace Poe's rating may be down by 2%, but considering the 5%(+-) margin of error in these surveys, this is not significant at all. Note also that the survey done before most of the Senate hearings on Mamasapano debacle until release of the report, were very well handled by Grace Poe. People who have observed Grace Poe's actuations and conduct as a senator have been greatly impressed that she has the intellect and temperament of a good politician and leader. I was informed that in the wedding early this month of Congressman Luigi Quisumbing, where a number of politicians were sponsors and guests, Grace Poe was the most applauded politician. And this has been happening in all the places that she had publicly appeared. Image and perception wise, the pairing of an intelligent, honest and capable woman, and a "no nonsense" tough talking/doing mayor and ex-congressman is a dream team.
Another thing going for the team up for president and vice-president is the much vaunted geographic advantage of having a Luzon and Visayas/Mindanao team up, so that their regional strength/bailiwicks will complement each other. Although, there were previous presidential elections that belied this theory, this team up is a real complementation, as Duterte's Visayas/Mindanao electorates is at par with Luzon in voter population and demographics, even if not in economic distribution.
As to organization and logistics, the team up will need the least amount of campaign funds as the basic and natural popularity/strength of the team will draw volunteer logistical resources, both material and human resources. If it would take P4 billion to run a presidential campaign, Poe and Duterte will need only P2 billion worth of human and material resources. While a nationwide organization may be built from scratch, in all likelihood that one of the major parties may just be too eager to adopt them as their candidates.
Endorsement for the team will pour in, even unsolicited, and you can just imagine the endorsements and the campaigns of the movie stars and other celebrities. Even Erap has already publicly announced his support for Grace Poe if she runs for president.
The program of government for the team will be attractive and easy to sell. Poe's straight forward and transparent good governance philosophy, back by a rule of law enforcing vice-president will fly.
With a huge majority in the election, they can then proceed with a Constitutional Convention to amend the constitution to move to a federal form of government.
I am not endorsing any candidate and this is just my initial "Far and Near" perspective of the coming presidential elections. I will be commenting on other presidentiables and vice-presidentiables as they become interesting. I believe opinion writers should comment on important issues and this presidential election is a very important issue. We may make all kinds of analysis and prognosis, and even have preferences but many people believe becoming president and vice-president is destiny. A number of the presidents we have had in this country were not even in the political horizon until a few months before the elections. There is a God after all.