By RICARDO SALUDO
WE thought the Las Piñas raffle prize of a house and lot, presumably donated by the city’s political kingpins, the billionaire Villar family, was the ultimate in carrots to get people rolling up sleeves for jabs against the coronavirus disease 2019, or Covid-19.
But all the way across the Pacific, the American state of Washington dangles a vaccination lure that, of course, would never fly hereabouts: marijuana smokes, which is legal in several of the United States.
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board gave state-licensed grass sellers the nod to offer one pre-rolled marijuana joint “to adult consumers who receive a vaccination at an in-store vaccination clinic.”
The freebie might just get enterprising researchers testing whether smoking grass right after the jab would affect vaccine efficacy, provoke adverse reactions or yield a more intense high. Such an inquiry would certainly spice up medical journals.
President and Vice President Duterte?
Thankfully, Filipinos get high on more respectable, if sometimes more intoxicating pastimes. Like politics.
The latest potboiler firing up the presidentially ambitious, their hangers-on and the opposition is speculative chatter that President Rodrigo Duterte might run for vice president, as some of his Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) partymates are mooting.
Roiling anti-Duterte quarters even more is the idea pushed by some diehard supporters of the President that he and his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who leads presidentiables in recent voter polls, would tandem next May as running mates.
That led to an opposition outcry over “dynasty” and predictions from pundits and politicians that Filipino voters would never go for a daughter-father ticket. Former senator Antonio Trillanes 4th, a diehard Duterte opponent, even dared the Dutertes to run so the people can reject them at the polls.
Well, if the opposition really thinks that the Duterte name would win zilch on election day, then why all the alarm over a Duterte-Duterte ticket that is sure to lose? Answer: Because it may just win.
The unmentionable fact is administration opponents fear that the old man’s world-leading approval ratings despite our pandemic and economic travails might just translate into strong, if not landslide showings at the hustings for Inday Sara and her dad.
Now, last time one checked, if citizens vote for candidates in droves, that’s democracy, not dynasty, even if winners happen to come from the same family. The people may be ill-advised, lacking in candidate information, swayed by propaganda or some other deficiency in deliberation, but their sovereign will must be respected.
Otherwise, we end up like Myanmar, where the daughter of its founding father Aung San was barred from running for office for being married to a foreigner, and, since the February coup, from running the country.
Indeed, the Philippine Senate, where there has been much bristling over both Dutertes running, has had four members of the clan of former president Joseph Estrada, three from the late Rene Cayetano’s family, and spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar.
In certain Congresses, mother Loi Ejercito and son Jinggoy Estrada, the latter and his half-brother Joseph Victor Ejercito, and siblings Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano served in the Senate together.
Going further back, scions of the late presidents Sergio Osmeña, Jose Laurel, Manuel Roxas, Ramon Magsaysay, Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino became senators, and two – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino 3rd – served as president in successive terms from 2001 to 2016.
Framers of the 1987 Constitution sought to address the tendency of Filipino voters to elect candidates with renowned names by inserting a provision calling for legislation against political dynasties. No prizes for guessing why the dynasty-ridden Congress never got around to enacting laws against dominant political families.
But objectors against a Duterte-Duterte ticket may counter that it’s something else when a sitting president runs for VP, who can then succeed if the next head of state gives way.
Moreover, a daughter or a loyal aide as president could share power with VP Duterte, much like Vladimir Putin, whom Duterte had called “idol,” slid to prime minister when barred from the presidency but still ran Russia through a close ally elected top leader.
Will Duterte magic last?
In the end, whether any Duterte candidacy, father or daughter, will win depends on Filipinos’ approval of the current administration. Last October, when Covid infections had dropped to about 500 a day, the government garnered an 80-percent approval rating in the Pulse Asia survey. That high grade is surely one reason why Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio topped the voter surveys.
Will this lofty rating last till next May? Here’s how the coming months seem to be shaping up. Some 20 million vaccines, maybe millions more, are expected through the rest of the year, enough to cover major urban areas. Hence, further opening up of the economy is doable toward December and into 2022.
Economic recovery in the West and much of East Asia, though slowed somewhat by the resurgence of new variants, will raise Philippine dollar earnings from exports, business process outsourcing and overseas Filipino workers. These external revenues will feed into consumer spending, which would also recover as the domestic economy opens. A further boost would come from tourism’s gradual revival.
The big risk factor is Covid-19. Thankfully, vaccines are keeping serious cases and deaths down, though infections may spike. So, immunization can enable the economy to open without fear of hospitals and morgues filling up. And the recovery may well be in full swing early next year -boosting administration candidates in the run-up to the May elections.
This week, President Duterte admitted being VP was difficult, so he preferred to retire. But he also said he found no one deserving to succeed him. Critics might now accuse him of plotting to stay in power. But those who have known and watched him long enough will likely smile at how his remarks confuse opponents.
Politics. It’s more fun in the Philippines.
Republished from 10-06-2021