Continuity

Straight from the horse’s mouth, it’s now out in the open. President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III declared he is scouting for his rightful successor. That is, if this candidate who President Aquino will anoint as the official administration’s standard-bearer will win in the May 2016 elections. President Aquino announced he would start grooming for the presidency his anointed candidate once a “consensus” is reached with his fellow Liberal Party (LP) leaders and members.

As to who the anointed will be, President Aquino stopped short to mention any nominees, except citing the need for consultations with the ruling LP. Obviously, P-Noy is stuck and limited to whoever his LP partymates would nominate as their presidential timber.

And for all intents and purposes, P-Noy is bound to follow the LP nomination process to help him choose their presidential standard-bearer. And whoever will be chosen by P-Noy as his “anointed” one, he or she would do a lot of catching up with the earliest bird in the race, Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Definitely, Vice President Binay is a cinch to be the presidential standard-bearer of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in the coming elections. Now registered as a political party at the Commission on Elections (Comelec), UNA will definitely field Binay to face off whoever would be put up by other parties like the LP of P-Noy.

That is, if there would be no regrouping or new political alliances forged for the May 2016 presidential elections.

In the May 2010 elections, UNA was formed by the alliances of Binay’s PDP-Laban with the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. Binay won as vice presidential running mate of Estrada, who lost to P-Noy. But Binay prevailed over ex-Sen. Mar Roxas II as P-Noy’s vice presidential running mate. Up to now, Roxas has a pending protest filed at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) against Binay.

Despite losing his bid to regain the presidency, Estrada placed second and fared better than Sen. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP) who came in third among ten presidential candidates. 

Speaking of Villar, the former senator who has successfully revitalized his real estate business, has been quiet all this time about his rumored comeback to run again for the presidency. The NP chieftain has left NP matters to his party lieutenants led by his wife Sen. Cynthia Villar, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Villar learned the bitter lesson of his early declaration of presidential bid. More than two years before the May 2010 presidential elections, Villar came under fire for his supposed family business interest benefitting from the government-funded C-5 road project in Las Piñas City.  In the end, nothing came out of these Senate inquiries, except broken presidential dreams of Villar.

In the mid-term elections in May 2013, NP along with the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) forged alliance with the ruling LP for both the Senate, congressional and local level. As to whether this alliance will hold would become clearer soon now that President Aquino has opened the door of choosing who would be the “anointed” one for the coming presidential derby.

Binay has been dominating pre-election surveys from among the potential presidential bets for 2016. Binay’s ratings, however, declined in the third quarter of this year while he is being investigated by a sub-committee of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee over alleged “over-priced” construction of the Makati Parking building II while he was still mayor of Makati City.

Binay and his son, incumbent Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. face plunder charges over this building project. Both have denied the allegations against them. The Vice President claimed this was part of a politically driven demolition job against him to destroy his presidential bid.

The Senate hearings unearthed more allegations of corruption against the Binays from their supposed ill-gotten wealth that included what his critics dubbed as “Hacienda Binay” in Rosario, Batangas to alleged condo units in Makati City that the Binays purportedly acquired using “dummies” to hide their ownership.

The Vice President particularly suffered a 15-percentage point drop in his ratings in the Pulse Asia survey conducted last September 8 to 15. Binay’s approval rating was at 66 percent, falling from his 81-percent approval rating in June. Nonetheless, the Vice President remained the strongest contender from among the presidential wannabes, according to the same opinion surveys.

After its 12th Senate public hearing the other day — televised and aired live on radio broadcast — Sen.Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III announced they would temporarily suspend their inquiry into the alleged corruption of the Binays to focus on the 2015 budget bill deliberations. 

So while the Senate hearing on the case is suspended, Pimentel admitted yesterday they allowed their chief whistleblower against Binay, former Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado to go to the United States purportedly to visit the latter’s ailing wife. Mercado left the country following counter-allegations from the Binay camp of the latter’s amassing ill-gotten wealth.

Pimentel believes Mercado, who is under the Witness Protection Program, would return to the country to resume his testimony at the Senate. But whether he comes back or not remains to be seen.

In the meantime, President Aquino has resumed his countdown in his remaining days in office. This, President Aquino cheerfully told his international audience of business leaders at The Economist conference held in Singapore last Monday which fell on his last 590 days in office. 

In fact, President Aquino disclosed he is looking forward how to spend his post-Malacañang life after June 30, 2016. For starters, he can do what his two immediate predecessors did – run for a lower elective post, either in Congress or in local government.

P-Noy knows his priority for now is to look for the right candidate who can meet his minimum requirement: someone to continue the reforms he has started.

But how can you ensure continuity if the candidate is not winnable? P-Noy is obviously counting on his continuing two-digit popularity rating to rub off on his anointed one to carry his presidential candidate to win and succeed him at Malacañang.