Looking out for No. 2

It is eight months before national elections, and what should be a serious democratic exercise looks to me like an extravaganza of political death-defying antics by a host of clowns — among them five sitting senators who are angling for the vice presidency in a circus of inflated egos and unabashed ambition.

The vice president is literally a spare tire, a heartbeat away from the most powerful post in the land, but usually a non-performing asset whose reason for being is to respectfully wait for the president to croak in order to gain relevance. But most presidents do not intend to die in office so most VPs just wither away, unremembered.

But the times are different. Never has the vice-presidency been used directly, consciously and cynically as a shortcut to the presidency. How has it happened that while there are only three people running for president, we now have five senators and one congresswoman gunning for the vice-presidency?

It would make sense to have so many aspirants for VP if the presidential candidates had one foot in the grave. But Grace and Mar are young enough and even Binay, who is in his mid-seventies, looks fit enough to withstand six grueling years in office. Are these senators after something we don’t know about?

Call me cynical, but are Chiz Escudero, Antonio Trillanes, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Gregorio Honasan and Alan Peter Cayetano gambling on a Grace Poe victory followed by her disqualification on citizenship issues? Or a Binay victory followed by impeachment on grounds of corruption? This would provide whoever is VP an easy, painless and legal route to Malacañang.

Given the seemingly precarious situation of Binay and Poe, the possibilities must be tantalizing to these hungry VP wannabes who otherwise would not come close to being elected president. Expediency is the name of the game, and they will use whatever and whoever they can to get the prize.

It is a strange cast of characters and bedfellows. Honasan, whose murderous gang of coup plotters repeatedly attempted to overthrow Cory Aquino, who was Binay’s president, is running with Cory’s self-styled bodyguard (a.k.a Rambotito). Binay’s first choice was actually Bongbong Marcos, whose father he fought to remove from office, but even as he conveniently advised the electorate to “move on” from the trauma of martial law, Bongbong’s family has not, and they repudiated his offer. The shifty Escudero, who is running with the politically naïve Grace Poe, made it possible for Binay to be elected VP by promoting the colorum NoyBi ticket in 2010. And Cayetano, Trillanes, and Marcos, who are all Nacionalista Party members, have broken ranks with the NP to run for the same position, even as the party has been hard-put to find a credible presidentiable among them. What kind of ambition would drive a person to abandon principle and do such major political somersaults?  

Trillanes has pledged his allegiance to Grace Poe, who is politically betrothed to Escudero. Marcos and Cayetano are begging Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to run and chose one of them as his running mate. But Duterte has played it coy, keeping everyone guessing and wishing, perhaps while he ascertains which of these hopefuls can provide the necessary funds for a credible campaign. 

Above the fray and beyond the circus atmosphere is the campaign of Mar Roxas, which has gained fresh momentum after Congresswoman Leni Robredo accepted his invitation to run as his VP. Of the six VP hopefuls, only Robredo needed convincing that she would be worthy of the post. While the five senators presented themselves as God’s gift to the Filipino people, Leni agonized over her decision, praying, consulting, weighing, and asking, “Why me?” before finally throwing her hat in the ring. 

Leni has entered a circus complete with clowns, dancing horses, lions leaping through rings of fire, trapeze artists flying and high-wire walkers dancing on tight-ropes a hundred feet above trampolines. They intend to keep the electorate entertained — no, mystified — with magic, smoke and mirrors, hoping to be selected as No. 2 come election day.

But we don’t need a circus to choose a president or vice president. We need candidates who put country above self, principle over expediency, truthfulness over obfuscation, honest service over personal ambition.  Apart from the virtuous Leni Robredo, it is slim pickings among the wannabes.