No love lost between the Marcoses and the Macapagals

Well, what is happening to GMA nowadays is not mere coincidence. This has been written in the stars since Ferdinand Edralin Marcos from Batac, Ilocos Sur bolted the Liberal Party, joined the Nacionalista Party and contested the presidency in 1965. The rest is history. The Marcoses and the Macapagals are really like oil and water. They can never mix in harmony.

One does not need to have the IQ of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Immanuel Kant, Galileo Galilei, or Rene Descartes to understand that Malacañang had a hand in the continuing marginalization of GMA. First, she was shamed by demoting her from her hitherto singular honor of being senior deputy speaker to a mere deputy speaker which is just equal to the rank of her former protégé from Pampanga, Aurelio Dong Gonzales. That was a penalty for openly siding with Inday Sara in the vice president's ambition to become the number one like her father. Obviously, Inday Sara is being driven by a desire to duplicate the record of GMA, the daughter who also became a president like her father. And GMA styled herself as Inday Sara’s mentor along this line of presidential ambitions.

Second, when GMA, like her fellow deputy speaker Isidro Ungab, refused to sign the resolution concocted by the Romualdez camp, seeking to declare all-out support and undivided loyalty to Speaker Martin, GMA was punished again by stripping her completely of any House leadership role. A former president who is GMA was slapped with the insult of being replaced by a virtual unknown, Tonypet Albano from Isabela (part of the Solid North). Third, a group of so-called electric consumer advocates filed a ?32-million criminal charge against GMA for the old, old issue of the alleged misuse of the Malampaya Fund. So, these are triple whammies to put GMA in her proper place. If you believe that Malacañang has nothing to do with this, you are either a fool or were just born yesterday.

The father of GMA, the so-called poor boy from Lubao who married a rich heiress from Pangasinan, Dra. Eva Macaraeg, won as president in 1961 as the Liberal Party standard bearer and challenger against the then incumbent Carlos P. Garcia and won. It is recalled that Garcia of the Nacionalista from Talibon, Bohol, was the incumbent president after he succeeded the late Ramon Magsaysay who perished in that highly-controversial plane crash in Cebu. In 1961, Macapagal won over Garcia. At that time Ferdinand Marcos was the Senate president and he was promised by Macapagal that Marcos would be the Liberal Party's candidate for president in 1965 since Macapagal vowed not to seek a second term. Macapagal did not fulfill his promise, Marcos therefore left the LP and joined the NP and opposed Macapagal.

The results showed Marcos winning with 3,861,324 votes (51.94%) over Macapagal's 3,187,752 votes (48.88%). There were 10 other presidential candidates, including Raul Manglapus who got only 384,564 (5.17%). Fernando Lopez, Marcos' teammate won with a narrow plurality of 3,531,550 votes (48.48%) over his fellow Ilonggo, Gerardo Roxas, Macapagal's VP (father of former senator Mar Roxas and son of President Manuel Roxas Sr.), who got 3,504,826 (48.11%). In other words, Marcos won over Macapagal by a convincing lead of 673,572 votes mostly coming from the Solid North. But Lopez led Roxas by the slimmest plurality of only 26,727. That is why the Marcoses and the Macapagals have always been mortal enemies in politics.

In 2028, when Martin Ferdinand Romualdez, the first-degree cousin of BBM, will be gunning for the presidency, his number one opponent will no longer be Leni Robredo but Inday Sara Duterte. If Leni runs again, it will be to the advantage of Martin because that would break the women's votes. Since GMA is taking the side of Duterte, then she is the enemy again of the Marcoses and the Romualdez clans combined.

The fight between Sara and Martin will be a clash between Mindanao and the Visayas. Since Luzon is controlled by the Marcoses, Martin will likely win. That is why Sara needs GMA to break the Luzon vote. Since the enemy of your enemy is your friend, that is why GMA is a friend of the Dutertes. And that will be the clash of the titans. You don't need the brains of Einstein or Darwin to figure that out.