Is Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane really interested in running for the presidency, as reported in the papers last week? If so, has he stumbled upon tons and tons of money?
For tons and tons of money are required to mount a credible nationwide campaign, which he otherwise could not get from the administration, as it already is bent on spending its tons and tons of money on the presidential bid of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.
Mr. Ebdane is not known to come from a rich family. And as a presumably honest former PNP chief, whose salary is several notches below the P60,000 a month that the president of the republic receives, people do not expect him to have amassed the kind of money he needs.
He hints of the support of several governors in Mindanao. That, of course, is difficult to believe. But even granting it is true, these governors can only give him some moral support. They are not expected to foot his campaign bill for him.
On the contrary, knowing what we do of Philippine politics, local politicians such as governors and mayors gravitate toward national candidates because they expect to get financial support from them for their own local campaigns. It is never the other way around.
So if it is true Mr. Ebdane enjoys the support of governors in Mindanao, it must be because their olfactory senses sharpened through the years were able to get a whiff of a scent that can only suggest tons and tons of money, which they can use for their own campaigns.
The explanation of Mr. Ebdane that he has endeared himself to these governors because of the public works projects he has poured into the island does not hold water because these projects did not come from his own pocket. They were paid for by the taxes of all Filipinos.
Again, for Mr. Ebdane to mount a credible national campaign, if indeed he is to run for president, he must have the tons and tons of money required to finance it. But if he has that kind of money, then the first order of business in his campaign is for him to explain it.
Mr. Ebdane has to be transparent with his resources because it is not a given, the way it is a given with billionaires Manny Villar and Mar Roxas, Teodoro who has the administration, or even Noynoy Aquino who is a Cojuangco. Even with Joseph Estrada the people know. But Ebdane?