After the dreaded ‘ghost’ month

It’s the start of the “-ber” months tomorrow and it will soon be Christmas. In the runup to May, 2016 national and local elections, certain candidates have set for this September their respective formal announcements to join next year’s presidential race.

To date, there are two declared candidates, namely, Vice President Jejomar Binay and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II. Binay is the presidential standard-bearer for the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). Roxas is the anointed presidential candidate of President Aquino’s ruling Liberal Party (LP).

Both Binay and Roxas, however, still have to come up with their respective vice presidential runningmates as well as candidates in their 12-man senatorial tickets.

Amid his flip-flopping statements whether he would run or not in the coming presidential elections, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is reportedly set to declare in September he is in the race. That is according to former National Food Authority (NFA) general manager Lito Banayo, now a key adviser of Duterte.

The last time we talked a couple of weeks ago, Banayo told me Duterte is definitely running for higher office and will formally declare it anytime in September. Banayo, however, would not say if it is for the presidency or vice president.

Another September declaration is set by the camp of Senators Grace Poe and Francis “Chiz” Escudero. For now, it is not clear yet if the two “independent” senators would agree to be the running tandem for the Nationalist People’s Coalition. The NPC though along with the Nacionalista Party (NP) have remained allies and coalition partners of President Aquino’s LP.

NP Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV have separately announced their willingness to run as vice presidential runningmates of Roxas. However, fellow NP Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is being bruited to run for the presidency.

But his namesake father’s political party, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) of the late president, urged the senator to run instead as vice presidential runningmate of Binay. 

Currently, the top favorite in opinion polls as the most preferred presidential and vice presidential candidate, Poe has not rejected outright the Palace overtures for her to be the runningmate of Roxas. From all indications, it would seem that doors are still open for Poe to consider the LP offer.

But first things first. Poe has to hurdle the legal challenges posed on her bid for higher office. She has to answer the formal protest filed against her and given due course last week by the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET). The protest stemmed from the complaint filed by Rizalito David who ran but lost in the May, 2013 election when Poe topped the 12-man senatorial race.

The nine-man SET gave Mary Grace Llamanzares Poe within ten days “non-extendible period” to file her answer upon receipt of the SET order handed down on August 24. The SET ordered the Bureau of Immigration and the National Statistics Office to produce the citizenship and birth certificate documents on her questioned eligibility as elected senator.

In his complaint before the SET, David claimed Poe failed to satisfy the two-year residency requirement for senatorial candidates. Hence, David asked the SET to remove Poe as senator for being not a natural-born citizen of the Philippines.

Poe earlier welcomed the filing of the case at the SET as the proper venue to finally clear once and for all the allegations against her citizenship and residency hurled in various public fora by her critics and detractors.

The SET is chaired by Supreme Court (SC) associate justice Antonio Carpio, with fellow associates justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro and Arturo Brion among its members. The rest of the SET is composed of Poe’s fellow senators – Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV (LP), Cynthia Villar (NP), Pia Cayetano (NP), Vicente Sotto III (NPC), Loren Legarda (NPC), and Nancy Binay (UNA).

Poe became American citizen in 1991 and admitted she re-acquired Filipino citizenship in 2005. This was a year after she decided to finally settle in the Philippines following the death of her late father, actor Fernando Poe Jr. Poe’s camp insisted she has complied with all constitutional requirements.

While there maybe no doubt she can argue this case to her favor, close advisers of Poe, however, concede it would be an emotional issue against her if she runs for higher office in 2016. Filipino voters would take second thoughts why would they elect someone as President of the country who at one time renounced her Philippine citizenship? 

While Poe grapples with questions on her citizenship, other presidential aspirants like Binay and Roxas are also faced with their respective “demons.” Binay has been under fire on corruption allegations related to his former stint as mayor of Makati City while Roxas battles public perception of being a wimp and indecisive leader.

So at this stage, more of these wannabes and other undeclared candidates would pour out this September. Incidentally, this is also the period for the third quarter opinion surveys of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia. The two major opinion pollsters are scheduled to conduct the next round of their respective pre-polls on voters’ preferred candidates.

The survey results would come out a few days before all wannabes are required to file their individual certificates of candidacy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on October 12 to 16.

In the meantime, the dreaded “ghost” month of August ends today with the “separation of Church and State” issues raised by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). Since Friday, the INC flock has staged protest rallies against Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima.

They were protesting alleged “selective justice” by De Lima in going after the INC leadership over a criminal case filed by a disgruntled minister. From DOJ office in Faura, Manila, the INC protest assemblies shifted to EDSA in Mandaluyong, adding to the traffic jams all over Metro Manila for the past three days.

As DILG Secretary Roxas scored big popularity points for upholding “the rule of law” over the rule of mob at EDSA even at the risk of incurring INC’s ire, the INC – boasting of a solid voting block to any candidate they endorse – can kiss goodbye “ghost” month.