This Presidential race is really a tight one!

The last Philippine STAR I read before our Holy Week retreat was our Wednesday edition which had an editorial entitled “A Failed Experiment”. This was about the Party-List system that was supposed to be an experiment in Congressional representation. The editorial says “At the hands of people with unbridled greed for political clout and all the perks of public office, the experiment is doomed to failure. Today the party list has become nothing more than a backdoor entrance to the House of Representatives.” How very true!

Need I say more that the party list system is one of the glaring failures of the Cory Constitution which is why we need so badly to have a Constitutional Convention (con-con) ASAP? Since we’re talking about the Legislative Branch of the government, I would like to point out that the present multi-party system of governance has also similarly and miserably failed with the party list system. As the late Manong Max Soliven would have written about this brouhaha, “This is akin to squeezing the toothpaste; once it’s out of the tube it is impossible to return it back . . . Sanamagan” .

How we would have loved to read the columns of Sir Max during these tumultuous times in our political history… where the party list system has been used, abused and raped repeatedly and the same is true with our mainstream political parties, where turncoatism seems to be the order of the day. Let me just say that “There ought to be a law!”

I just had an interview with Senatoriable Ruffy Biazon (LP) and asked him what he thought of the problems we’re having with the party list system and he concurred with me that this has to be seriously looked into. He also agreed with the observations of many Filipinos that we need to return to the tried and tested Two-Party system of governance and that the only way to fix this problem was through an amendment of the 1987 Constitution. This is what I like with Rep. Biazon; he finds the need to fix this Constitution.

Unfortunately, this is not in the agenda of LP Presidential bet Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III or his neck-to-neck rival from the Nacionalista Party Sen. Manny Villar because Villar already pointed out that having a good President is all what this country needs. Again let me emphasize that only former Defense Sec. Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. is pushing for a constitutional convention (con-con) on the first year of his term if he gets elected.

Speaking of Gibo Teodoro, he was the principal subject of lies and vicious and malicious rumors . . . that he would quit the Presidential race. Prior to these rumors, the national dailies and the national TV and radio networks unashamedly reported the falsehood that Gibo’s allies in Cebu had deserted him. To disprove all these lies, Gov. Gwen F. Garcia invited me last Holy Tuesday to the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel and put me on the table with the Garcia family and Gibo, including all the heads of the barangay councils and the municipal mayors in Cebu Province that that show of force proved all these news reports wrong.

The only pro-Gibo supporter that left was Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz who is running for Mandaue City mayor and she shifted to Sen. Villar. But Luigi Quisumbing has stayed put for Gibo. In truth, we were never happy that Rep. Soon-Ruiz was the first to support Gibo as she was one of the co-authors of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill and thus the Catholic Church and their lay supporters is against her mayoralty bid. She is also one Trapo out of Lakas-Kampi and her defection only reduces her chance of winning the mayoralty race because the Gibo supporters will no longer vote for her as she has parted ways from the One Cebu Party. She’s no loss for Gibo!

Incidentally that Tuesday evening, I presented to Gibo my nine-year old grandson Mico Avila-Tequillo who just received a President’s Award for Math from the Child Development Center (CDC). He was awestruck that Gibo would give him a lot of attention . . . and ended up convincing his parents to vote for Gibo. Also that same evening, Gibo pointed out to the One Cebu Party that he would campaign vigorously until the May 10th elections. Hence despite the text rumors sent against him, he is not quitting the race!

Finally, here’s the latest survey from the Campaigns & Images Group (CIG) done up to April 5th. For the age 18-29 bracket (25M voters) Villar leads by 33%, Gibo at 26% and Aquino at 25%. For the age’s 29-39 (15.8M voters) Sen. Villar 10%, Aquino 7% Gibo is 6% and a huge undecided voters of 69%. For ages 40-51 (6.1M voters) Villar 8%, Aquino 4%, Gibo 3% and a huge undecided of 77%. For the ages 52 and up (4.1M voters) Villar 34%, Gibo 26% Aquino 16%. CIG says “By far perceived to be popular and well-prepared presidential candidates in the nine-person field, the most likely winner could be anyone in Villar, Aquino and Teodoro.” It is a tight race! 

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.