“It was as if the Holy Father just extended his mortal life to be able to greet the faithful on the holiest of Christendom’s festivals”
THE past three months have been unsettling, both to the country and to the whole world. It was also a period of successive tragedies.
In the last 10 days for instance, National Artist and acclaimed superstar Nora Aunor died. Beloved of the masa, she was probably the greatest movie actor in two generations of Filipinos. I had the privilege of having been with her many times during the nationwide campaign of Joseph Estrada in the 1998 presidential elections.
Then came Hajji Alejandro, one of the favorite musical artists of our generation, who succumbed to a lingering illness. Only through the obituaries did I learn that Hajji was my “tocayo,” our first name being Angelito.
But most poignant of all was the Easter Monday announcement that Pope Francis had died. We were all buoyed up with hopes of his recovery after five weeks in the hospital, his return to the Vatican, and on Easter Sunday, his brief motorcade to greet the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square.
It was as if the Holy Father just extended his mortal life to be able to greet the faithful on the holiest of Christendom’s festivals.
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Before all these deaths, our people were deeply unsettled by the extrajudicial rendition of a well-loved former president into the waiting arms of the largely discredited International Criminal Court on March 11, after 14 grueling hours of mishandling and abuse by his captors led by a police general at the Villamor Air Base.
That apparent “kidnap” as many now label it, has touched a raw nerve among many of us, eventually creating an emotional tsunami that has unsettled the politics of this country leading to the now crucial May elections.
Meanwhile too, Donald Trump, POTUS of a fast-decaying military, political and economic empire, has unsettled the world not only for his irascible conduct but also because of his on-and-off play on tariff impositions that has discombobulated the world trading system.
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One wonders, what else will come to unsettle our lives?
For now, we have mid-term elections in less than three weeks, and the early advantage of the Alyansa slate filled with well-known political “brands” has been challenged by a resurgence of the Duterte candidates, no matter how less known, on account of the former president’s rendition to the ICC, which caused an explosion of sympathy bordering on rage especially in Mindanao and Central Visayas.
Will Team Sara be able to get enough of its candidates inside the win column, and dislodge some of the Team Bongbong candidates from their heretofore assured rankings?
This happens at a time when the president’s approval and trust ratings nose-dived by some 17 percent, down to 25 points, lower even than the much reviled PGMA was during the mid-terms of 2007, when her approval rating was down to 30.
The administration advantage in 2007 was utterly destroyed by the Genuine Opposition, resulting in a lopsided 8 GO winners versus 2 from GMA’s Team Unity (that word again!), one Liberal and one independent.
Can Inday Sara who is about to face trial in the Senate manage to carry four or five, even six perhaps, neutralizing therefore the administration’s resources and its well-known candidates? It will be tough, but who knows how voter sentiment will swing on E-Day?
Note that in 2007, PGMA’s rating was down to 30 percent, already recovered from the Hello Garci scandal of 2005, and the government had more stable finances generated by the E-VAT while food prices were relatively stable.
In 2013, President PNoy had a high approval rating of 68 percent as the country went into its mid-term elections. His Team PNoy candidates won overwhelmingly in the Senate race, at a ratio of 9 versus 3 UNA candidates supported by Vice-Pres. Jojo Binay.
In 2019, with PRRD’s all-time 87 percent approval rating, the entire Ocho Derecho opposition slate was slaughtered by the Duterte coalition candidates on an 11 senator-sweep plus then Lakas candidate Bong Revilla who squeaked into the winning column after a last-minute TVC featuring him dancing a “bu-dots” craze.
A strange phenomenon is shown in the recent surveys in Mindanao, where there is a shut-out by the Duterte Nine, with only latecomer Mata not inside the win column, and Team Bongbong’s Erwin Tulfo and Manny Pacquiao surviving. Even in Central Visayas, seven of Team Sara’s candidates are in the latest win column of Pulse Asia.
Will the more publicly-trusted Inday Sara’s endorsement of Imee Marcos and Camille Villar help them win in these Duterte strongholds?
After May 12, the Senate trial of the HoR impeached vice-president starts, another inflection point.
The present Year of the Snake looks to be very unsettling for our country.
