I was discussing with a friend on Messenger the other night about potential Presidential candidates and we narrowed it down to three probables in case Sara Duterte doesn’t run. It came down to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, former Senator Bongbong Marcos (BBM), and convicted mutineer Antonio Trillanes. His preference was for Isko because Trillanes he thought more of a nuisance and BBM carried baggage and would be too divisive.
Delving deeper into the criteria, he mentioned about the sanctity of contracts, specifically Manila and Maynilad Water and ABS-CBN. According to him, businessmen didn’t take too kindly to the tirades President Rodrigo Duterte directs at at the three companies. Ayala had to sell to Enrique Razon, who has close ties to the administration while Manny Pangilinan had no choice but to give in to a renegotiation of the concession contract despite emerging victorious out of arbitration in Singapore.
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It was an open secret that these concession agreements were sweetheart deals when the water concession was privatized during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos. This began during the Cory Aquino administration and continued throughout that of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s (GMA’s) with the oil industry deregulation and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which were all supposed to foster competition and result in lower prices but had the reverse effect with the formation of cartels and rampant fuel smuggling.
The question which comes to mind is, do you think the President did the right thing in strong arming these companies into submission? The friend said that the President’s actions tend to scare away foreign investors because the rule of law wasn’t respected. But what if the process of negotiation was rigged in favor of the concession holders? What protection does the average Pinoy have?
There has been this probability propounded that the Presidential endorsement won’t carry much weight going into the final months of Duterte’s term. There is supposedly an increasing number of what could be termed as sway voters; those whose voting preference could be changed as the elections draw near. There is also the demographics to take into account considering the 21-49 age group is equivalent to 40 million voters. This is just an estimate because the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) doesn’t have hard data in its database. It doesn’t even have an updated voters list which takes into account the newly-registered voters.
Of course, everything is speculation at this point. But it does seem to appear that Isko just might be able to pull off a victory in a head-to-head matchup with BBM. It’s thus imperative that Sara runs. If she doesn’t, then the Opposition will throw its weight behind Isko. Regions 5 and 6 specifically. Visayas and Mindanao would be split between them, specially if there is no native son running, unless BBM gets Senator Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao as his running mate. It’s going to be an interesting next five months until the deadline of filing of certificates of candidacy in October.
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Duterte’s win and subsequent betrayal of the Filipino people has had me disillusioned. He was a partial outsider, non-Metro Manila politician that has some experience, the best-of-both worlds as you will but this amounted to nothing.
We gave that idea a chance. Now we should elect a conplete outsider. A competent person scuh as a successful leader in the private sector. Reading the federalist papers and the declaration of independence, along with Montesquieu’s the Spirit of Laws, Aristotle’s the republic just to name a few, it has become clear to me that political experience has never been an intended criteria to electing someone into the highest executive office. In fact, it is detrimental.
How is it detrimental? Care to explain?
It is detrimental in the fact that if you believe in government/bureaucracy then you are ok with the ridiculous red tape/signatures/wasted time it takes to get anything done. Outsiders who are logical do not believe in the red tape / wasted time and hopefully will push for less laws / less government which will make things better. To get various building permits in certain parts of the country you need 50 plus signatures. That is ridiculous and leads towards complacency because it is so difficult to legally get anything accomplished.
These career politicians have zero incentive to make anything better. They just want to help their political friends/etc. They don’t care about the average person trying to improve their life, yet the government makes that improvement almost impossible
You said a lot of things but haven’t really answered (including the guy who originally asserted it) why “political experience” is detrimental as an intended criteria to electing someone into the highest executive office?
You want “less government which will make things better”. Well, the elder Marcos tried to achieve (actually did!) that with a semi-parliamentary form of government with a unicameral legislature, the Batasang Pambansa, and a Prime Minister as head of government but the Yellowtards changed all that to accommodate the ‘Mga Kaibigan at Kamag-anak Inc.’ when they seized power illegally via a revolutionary government (she didn’t win the snap election!) replacing all legally elected officials of the land, down from the barangay level up to the national level- mayors, governors, other government officials and supreme court justices. Dictator Cory even came up with a new Freedom Constitution framed by Cory-appointed people. Ironic isn’t it? All that trouble which resulted in nothing but zero achievement in nation building for thirty years after Marcos.
Are you somehow describing an Einstellung effect? Someone can have experience and success in a different context and apply it to government. Making more laws for the same problems is indeed illogical- meaning they weren’t solved in the first place. Perhaps it takes continuous reorienting to minimize that tendency.
I agree.
Which is why the idea of voting for BBM is so hilarious.
The guy lost the vice presidency yet has been fighting the result in court for 5 years.
That is the type of guy who has no discipline to accept a result/ move on / make things better.
To fight with legal basis and evidence isn’t hilarious, a protest without the same is. Dismissing a case without even discussing and debating on their merits after five long years is crazy and scandalously hilarious. Voting for someone who has actual sane and sound platform should be the very idea… the criteria of electing a leader. Do you agree?