Noy to Pinoys: Choose next leaders wisely

MANILA, Philippines - With the next presidential election just two years away, President Aquino appealed yesterday to Filipinos to choose their next leader wisely if they don’t wish to see the country’s achievements under his administration go to waste.

The President’s Labor Day appeal – made before workers at the Laguna Technopark in Biñan, Laguna – came a day after the unofficial release of a Pulse Asia survey showing 40 percent of Filipinos preferring Vice President Jejomar Binay as their next president over Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II, widely believed to be Aquino’s preferred successor. Roxas ranked sixth in the survey with six percent.

“My request is, if you believe that what we’re doing is right and don’t want our achievements under the straight path to go for naught, choose for your next leaders those who can continue and further grow the reforms that we have planted,” Aquino said in Filipino.

“Choose only the deserving so that our society’s massive transformation can become permanent,” he said.

Malacañang said Aquino’s choice of Laguna Technopark to hold the Labor Day rites meant his administration is focused on the electronics and semiconductor industries, where significant improvements have been reported in terms of employment ratio.

“This underlines the administration’s determination to focus on generation of more jobs in the manufacturing and high value-added sectors where innate Filipino skills, ingenuity and talent will receive full recognition,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office stressed.

“The administration is intensifying job generation by promoting expansion and new investments in manufacturing and high value-added industries that will create more high quality jobs,” he added.

He said the “chronically high unemployment is being addressed through targeted skills training programs” by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Department of Labor and Employment.

Palace unfazed

For Aquino’s political advisers, it’s still too early to tell why his high popularity does not appear to have rubbed off on any potential administration candidate for 2016.

“Administration’s focus is on implementing PDP (Philippine Development Plan) and fulfilling promises in accordance with the President’s social contract with the Filipino people,” Coloma said in a text message.

Most administration bets won in last year’s midterm senatorial elections after the ruling Liberal Party coalesced with other parties under the “straight path” or tuwid na daan platform.

Although a member of the Cabinet, Binay is perceived to be from the “opposition” because he is from another coalition composed mostly of Aquino’s political foes.

Sought for comment on the Pulse Asia survey, Roxas said he is focused on his job and won’t let the report distract him.

Some officials said the success of the current administration could still make the President a powerful endorser.

“I congratulate Vice President Binay for being the frontliner in the latest survey. But it’s still more than two years to go before the next presidential elections. And a lot of things can still happen within that two years. (President Aquino) is a prime example of that,” presidential political adviser Ronald Llamas told The STAR in a text message.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, an LP stalwart, shared the same view.

Llamas said Aquino appeared on the presidential landscape just a few months before the 2010 elections and he went on to win with one of the biggest margins in the country’s history.

“Vice President Binay is himself a good example, he was two percent almost at the start of the campaign. He, more than anyone, should be careful of being overconfident of surveys this early,” Llamas said.

Factors like anti-corruption, integrity, good governance are still likely to shape voter preferences, Llamas said, and that new factors like social media, youth and women’s vote might also influence traditional voting patterns.

“The strong approval ratings of the President might also help his anointed candidate in a tight race. The Philippine electoral landscape is still very unpredictable this early,” Llamas said.

Abad pointed out that except for Binay, no other aspirants had come forward to announce their intention to run.

“Remember, in 2010, (President Aquino) came from nowhere, with eight months to go before the elections, to win the presidential elections,” Abad said.

The frontrunner before the 2010 elections then was senator Manuel Villar Jr. But his ratings were eventually affected by controversies that hounded him.

Coloma said Aquino would never let his judgment and responsibilities get affected by the recent survey.

“He is concentrating on making each day left in his term count in terms of delivering effective services and enduring reforms,” Coloma said.

Still undecided

Binay’s closest contender in 2016 – at least based on the Pulse Asia survey – is still undecided on whether to run for higher office.

Sen. Grace Poe, the candidate who got the highest number of votes in last year’s senatorial election, had voiced reluctance in following the footsteps of her father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., who lost the presidential race in 2004 allegedly due to widespread cheating perpetrated by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He died December that year.

“It is a tremendous honor to have the trust and confidence of our countrymen. But as I’ve mentioned, I consider it a great privilege to be chosen to serve in the Senate and I feel I have yet to prove myself worthy of the mandate entrusted to me before I can aspire for higher office. Our countrymen deserve no less,” Poe said.

In the Pulse Asia survey conducted last March 19 to 26, Poe was favored by 15 percent of the 1,200 survey respondents while Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago got the approval of 10 percent.

Of all the names included in the survey, only Binay has officially declared his intention to run for president in 2016.

For the position of vice president, the same survey showed Poe getting the most number of votes at 24 percent, followed by Sen. Francis Escudero at 20 percent, Roxas with eight percent and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with seven percent.

Santiago, who previously stated that it was about time that the country has another female president, said that she would only consider another bid for the presidency if all of the “crooks” involved in the pork barrel scam are indicted.

She made the comments last Wednesday after a speech at the University of the Philippines in Cebu.

In her previous statements, Santiago said that a successful presidential campaign would require some P2 billion.

Because of the large sum involved, Santiago said that she expects the campaign for the 2016 elections to rely heavily on social media, which is a more practical and possibly effective way for candidates to get their message across to the voters, particularly the youth.

Trillanes, for his part, said that the result of the survey was a reality check for him.

“That’s a welcome development so that at least we know that we are not doing well. You know your place in the sun. You know if you need to work harder and achieve more things so that you will be recognized by the people. This is a reality check for me,” Trillanes said. With Marvin Sy, Cecille Suerte Felipe