Gibo Teodoro: A breath of fresh air for the nation

If there is only one nice thing I can say about this administration, it should be the choice of Gibo Teodoro for the DND portfolio. He is a non-military man who shall be back to his post as secretary of national defense. He might be the guy we have been waiting for, given the ceaseless vexations and unmitigated provocations by China in the West Philippine Sea and winding up of the fight against the CPP/NDF/NPA after the demise of Joma Sison. He can put discipline in the armed forces and mitigate corruption.

Gibo is a scion of a very rich family, the Cojuangcos of Tarlac, a very political clan, divided right in the middle into two. The rightist branch was the pro-Marcos Cojuangcos, composed of the late Danding Cojuangco (taipan of San Miguel Corporation and founder of the National People’s Coalition or NPC) and Mercedes Cojuangco-Teodoro, whose husband, Gibo’s father, was the country’s best SSS administrator who safeguarded the SSS funds with his competence, conscientiousness and character, from the greed, corruption and schemes of trapos. The left branch, the anti-Marcos Cojuangcos, composed of Corazon Aquino, first cousin of Danding, married to Ninoy Aquino, and sister of Peping Cojuangco and other siblings. The right branch has not produced a president because Gibo was defeated by his cousin, PNoy from the left. The rest is history or her story, depending on who is telling it.

As I said, Gibo is a brilliant technocrat but a mediocre politician. He was beaten by a less qualified but more popular cousin, PNoy for president in 2010. And in 2022, he lost his senate bid to such characters as Robinhood Padilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Raffy Tulfo. Well, that is how the voters in this country choose their lawmakers and their presidents. I should say, our senators and our presidents. In March 2009, Gibo announced his intention to seek the presidency. He was only 45 years old by then. In 2022, he was 58 when he ran for the senate. Today, Gibo is 59 and by 2028, he will be 64 in case he still wants to run for president against Speaker Martin Romualdez and vice president Sara Duterte. He should, of course, remember that blood is thicker than water. BBM will most probably choose Martin. Although in 2010, politics was thicker than blood when he was beaten by his cousin, PNoy.

Gibo was supported by GMA in 2010 and that proved to be his undoing. GMA’s many controversies proved to be disastrous to Gibo’s candidacy. He was a terrific jockey riding on an injured horse. Here are the results of the 2010 presidential elections: PNoy, 15,208,678 or 42.08 percent; Erap, 9,487,837 or 26.25 percent; Manny Villar, 5,573,835 or 15.42 percent; Gibo, 4,095, 839 or 11.33 per cent. Then there was Eddie Villanueva, Dick Gordon and Jamby Madrigal and a couple of nuisance bets. Can you imagine a brilliant and honest guy like Gibo, being beaten by Erap and Villar?  In the 2022 senatorial race, Robinhood topped the polls with 26,612,434 or 47.91 percent.  The twelfth and last spot went to Jinggoy with 15,108,625 or 27.22 percent. Gibo Teodoro was number 15 with 11,788,478 or 23.02 percent. He was even beaten by Jinggoy, Jojo Binay and Herbert Bautista. My God, what is happening to the Filipino voters?

Gibo Teodoro is a breath of fresh air amidst the Philippine politics of “stench and decay.” He is very professional, a very hardworking technocrat, a low key executive, a very rich but humble man, soft-spoken and never haughty. In 1980, at the age of 16 he was elected Kabataang Barangay president for the whole province of Tarlac. Then he was elected as the Central Luzon head of KB while his mom was a member of the Batasang Pambansa. At the age of 34, in 1998, he was elected congressman and stayed in Congress for three terms until 2007. He was appointed by GMA as secretary of DND at the age of 43. That was also the age of Ramon Magsaysay when president Quirino named him secretary of DND. Magsaysay ran against Quirino and defeated his boss. Gibo was endorsed by his boss GMA in 2010 and lost heavily as fourth placer, behind his cousin, PNoy. And GMA had a lot to do for his debacle.

I still maintain that Gibo is an honest, competent and hardworking man, although he is a bad politician. He does not talk nonsense like the many trapos who defeated him. He does not make “bolada” just to amuse the “hoi polloi” nor tell falsehood just to create false expectations. He calls a spade a spade and he irritates the many who are lazy, incompetent and corrupt. Gibo is somehow like Emmanuel Pelaez or Manuel Manahan or Leni Robredo. He does not know how to tell a lie. He cannot joke like Robinhood or Jinggoy. He cannot make “bola” like “Kayo ang Boss Ko.” But he is Gibo Teodoro, with “Galing” and “Talino” but who may not become the president of this country.

Gibo is too good to be true. He does not belong to this kind of world, he is an anachronism to this kind of era. Like Jesus, like Mandela, Like Gandhi, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, he is a threat to the trapos. Because he always tells the truth. And that is why he may not become our president at all. We are too dirty to deserve such a pure soul.