The Anti-Binay’s Enemy is Not Binay

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 The news coverage of the fiasco at the Makati Mayor’s office the other day was yet another eye-opener, specifically the thuggish manner in which VP Binay behaved.  When Binay’s son finally vacated the premises, somebody pointed out that this was the first time since 1986 that a Binay was not in the office of Mayor of Makati.  The office has been in Binay’s family for thirty years (!) passed down from Binay, to his wife, to his son, whenever term limits or some such trivial nuisance got in the way.  I am pretty sure that if Binay becomes President of the Philippines, you will hear a giant toilet flushing sound, for there goes the future of the country.

The sad sad thing is…Binay will win.  You can almost see the clear runway path to his takeoff.  He will win because he has the machinery, he has the message, he has the mass support.  In this manner he is no different from Thaksin of Thailand or Lula of Brazil in his populist appeal.  “Where was your government?”, Binay asks.  And if anything is clearer to Filipinos, especially those far from Manila, is that their government has been absent and delinquent.

Fast future to post-election 2016.  The results are in: Binay with 39pct (winner), Poe with 35pct, Roxas with 15pct, and the rest split amongst the 7 other candidates for president.  Typical of all the past Philippine elections under the 1987 constitution, Binay will win even though the majority of the Filipinos did not vote for him.  (Estrada, Arroyo, and Aquino all won with around 40pct of the vote in a wide sea of candidates.)  He will win because the forces that oppose him, the Anti-Binay, cannot get their act together.  So typical of Philippine fragmented politics, the Anti-Binay, cannot decide on who will be their champion.  Is it Poe or Roxas?  Collectively, that split Anti-Binay bloc would have had 50pct of the vote and trounced Binay easily.  In other words, the foremost enemy of the Anti-Binay is its divided self.

So I am keeping one eye on a hefty suitcase and a possible for sale sign on my property in the Philippines.  if Binay wins as he is set to do, a rethink is in order on where to live before everything breaks down completely.  I do hope the Anti-Binay gets its act together.  I hate moving.

13 thoughts on “The Anti-Binay’s Enemy is Not Binay”

    • Poe’s appeal is certainly undeniable, and that shows up in the survey polls. On the other hand, despite what Roxas supporters say, I have doubts Roxas can beat Binay if the choice were narrowed to two candidates, much less in the current system where other candidates will be carving votes from him.

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    • There seems to be some talk now of Poe deciding to do “what is right for the country”. Whether some deal has been made, we dont know. My fear remains that if Poe totally takes herself out of the picture , no other candidate can beat Binay.

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  4. Give Pinoy credit as I believe he is seriously conflicted between anointing Grace who has strong winning chances against his now archenemy, Binay, and anointing Mar his misplaced moral and LP party choice. Misplaced as he is risking the fate of the country out of loyalty to party and a friend who yielded his presidential shot for him. Grace has made the choice easy by rejecting the offer to be Roxas’s VP . Was not the reason for Mar yielding to Aquino because the former had little chance of beating Villar in the presidential race whereas Pinoy had te lead because of the bobotante sympathy load. Duhh…is this not the same exact situation except its Poe in the lead, so why should the playbook be the other around?

    Now the Mar supporters are coming out of the woodwork bashing Poe saying she is greedy, arrogant, overly ambitious and unpatriotic because she won’t play ball. There are two Tagalog terms that aptly describe how Poe must have felt….ginagago at inuuto siya, meaning they were taking her for a fool.

    Actually, this friendly fire is turning out to been more visciousthan the attacks from the Binay camp as Mar supporters realize his record at the DILG and as Transport Secretary is nothing to crow about and their only desperate hope is to go negative on Poe in the mistaken assumption some of her supporters will defect to Roxas instead of back to Binay as you rightly point out.

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    • Agree with you. I am disappointed with the Liberal Party’s single minded mission to make Mar Roxas the next president, even risking handing over the office to Binay. Then again, maybe they have no other choice, no other raison de etre. Did you read my last post How to Dismantle an Atomic Poe? You may find it amusing.

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  6. There’s also this one little detail that the Vice-President can be elected from the opposing party of the winning President. In the US electoral system, a vote for the President is also a vote for the Vice-President. That will ensure team playing in the executive and avoid a scenario of a hostile Vice-President too eager to take the top post.

    Maybe the hesitation of Mar Roxas sliding as VP to Grace Poe is due to the fact that he could just as well lose again like the 2010 contest.

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  7. Pingback: The Tribes of Mar | notesfrommyphilippineisland

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