The task ahead

I fell in line on Monday at 10:30 a.m. to cast my vote. I reached the machine a few minutes past 3 p.m. or after five hours in the long queue. By the time I got out of the school, I was tired, hungry, and exhausted from election anxiety, fear of the still lingering COVID-19 virus, and the sweltering heat.

But like millions who went out to vote, I am proud to have exercised my right to suffrage, to fight for a country I love, to fight for my future and that of my fellow Filipinos because unlike my friends and loved ones before me, I’m still here. Still here. Indeed, I choose to stay. I choose to live here; to work here; to die here. I know no other home.

As I write this, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the ousted dictator, is poised for a landslide victory with a commanding lead over Leni Robredo, the Vice President and his closest rival in the presidential race.

As of 10 p.m. on Monday, with 70.28 percent of election returns counted, Marcos had 23 million votes, more than double Robredo’s 10.9 million votes and significantly higher than incumbent Rody Duterte’s 16.6 million votes garnered in 2016.

At least 10.9 million people are brokenhearted with the results. And many more. I know of kids who broke down in tears; fellow journalists who are both physically and emotionally drained; volunteers who gave so much of their time only to go home defeated.

For every nation-loving citizen, there will always be heartbreaks. The victors, on the other hand, have all the reasons to celebrate.

Silver lining

The silver lining I see in all this is the huge turnout of voters. Filipinos certainly want change. Perhaps, they feel the past administrations, from 1986 to 2016, have not done enough to improve their lives. It may also be because they want to see the continuation of the Duterte administration’s unorthodox and populist ways.

This year, the Commission on Elections counted 65.7 million registered voters from 54.4 million last year.

As I said, this is somewhat a silver lining – to actually see Filipinos exert the effort to vote. It means they have not given up on the country, on their future, on our leaders.

The next task for all of us now is to educate voters so they are able to choose well in the next elections. It is also important to teach Filipino voters the need to demand for accountability if their candidates fail to fulfill their campaign promises.

On the conduct of elections, we must likewise demand for a more efficient process, so many counting machines bogged down; thousands were not able to vote. COMELEC, which had six years to prepare for this, certainly has a lot of explaining to do.

Moving the country forward

For the next president, the pressing task at hand is how to move the country forward, especially after a debilitating pandemic.

Last year, the economy grew 5.7 percent after a record contraction of 9.6 percent in 2020, the first full-year of the pandemic.

For the first quarter, the Philippine economy likely survived the Omicron threat in January with a decent first quarter growth and further recovery on the way, according to international think tank Capital Economics.

It sees first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) for the Philippines likely growing by 6.7 percent year-on-year and inched up 1.5 percent on a quarterly basis.

“GDP is likely to have grown at a decent pace in the first quarter despite a huge Omicron outbreak in the middle of the quarter,” senior Asia economist Gareth Leather said.

The government will release the first quarter GDP data on Thursday, May 12.

Economic team

We are also waiting with bated breath who will comprise the country’s economic team.

The country’s richest tycoon Manuel B. Villar Jr., who has publicly announced his support for Marcos Jr., told me in a recent chat that equally crucial is the composition of the economic team, particularly the next Finance Secretary.

Other tycoons share the same view. Although they declined to be named, they said they are closely watching key appointments, such as the next Finance Secretary and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor, and then the secretaries of Agriculture, Trade and Industry, and Energy.

So far, there are many potential candidates for the country’s next Finance chief, including a former Philippine president; a bank executive, a former Finance undersecretary, a lawmaker, etc. etc.

But nobody really knows until Marcos Jr. makes the official announcement. We’ll have to wait and see who will fill the key positions in the Cabinet under his presidency.

As for Villar, he said he doesn’t see himself being part of the next administration when I asked him in jest if he would accept an offer to serve in Marcos Jr.‘s Cabinet.

But then again, as it was in the past and as it is now, the country’s tycoons and kingmakers don’t really need to be named to an official position to have a say in government. This, we know too well, has always been part of the story of our beloved country.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com