Daily Tribune Editorial
Because he (Bongbong Marcos) has no running mate as yet, again the tongues are wagging over whether this would be Senator Bong Go.
So, we have come to the point that had been speculated on for so long, it started to sound impossible. Even that attempt at levity (or was it?) with the reports pitting a “Marcos” and an “Aquino” seemed anticlimactic on the third day of the filing of Certificates of Candidacy (CoC).
But on Wednesday, the sixth of October, former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the country’s ousted leader, filed his CoC.
A Marcos — not Tiburcio, the independent who filed his CoC for the presidency on the same day Luz “Lala Ganda” Aquino filed hers for senator — had begun the journey to their family’s full circle.
If fortune shines on Bongbong and his Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, then this “circle” will indeed become complete for them, though perhaps not for many other Filipinos.
Because he has no running mate as yet, again the tongues are wagging over whether this would be Senator Bong Go, which sparked the Filipino humor and love for puns and making fun.
Then again it could be Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, for all we know — she, who filed her CoC to run for reelection in her hometown and pleaded with her friends and supporters to understand her decision to give her this chance to run the city for a third and final time before seeking other positions in the future.
It took Bongbong quite a while to get to this point, too. Hounded by the past, he has had to wait for the right time to make his mark in the world of politics — and then to make these accomplishments matter to the populace.
Through issues of historical revisionism and that ever-present doubt among Martial Law critics, victims and opposers, the former solon has stood his ground.
His struggle has not only been to face the “crowd” for his late father, but to be recognized for his pursuits. Be that as it may, blood, they say, is thicker than water — and a Marcos is a Marcos, many would add.
This may be why Bongbong, on the day he filed his CoC, refused to answer questions about his mother Imelda Marcos, and other cases attached to his family’s wealth.
A very telling statement — “If you have something new to ask me, mahirap [it’s hard] if we will be having the same conversations I’ve been having for 35 years,” he is quoted in a CNN report — reveals the kind of challenge he has had to face through all these decades.
One may assume he needed to constantly answer those sensitive questions through his stints as congressman, governor and vice governor of Ilocos Norte.
He went through the same when he ran against his main contender in the 2016 elections, Vice President Leni Robredo, fighting through an election protest that the Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of Robredo.
And on this coming elections, Bongbong once again faces off with Leni Robredo, who has announced her intention to run for the presidency.
By today, the nation would have the complete list of candidates we would study and choose from come May next year.
There are, of course, Senate veterans Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III who are running under different political parties because, Sotto said, “We’ve always said we don’t want to identify ourselves on a side of a fence. We’d rather be on the side of the Filipino people.”
Then there is Senator Manny Pacquiao who, in the run-up to the filing of CoC, may have jumped fences to pursue his ambitions.
We have Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, who many believe can give a Duterte administration bet strong competition.
It’s funny how Filipinos have zeroed in on the “next-gen” aspect of the 2022 derby. It’s a battle among “mga anak (children” — of Marcos (Bongbong), Aling Dionisia (Pacquiao) and even Kuya Germs (Isko). They are but few of the wannabe Presidents of this land. The handful of names we all recognize, however, is definitely going for a battle royale.
Source : Daily Tribune 08-10-2021