Between Leni and Bongbong

The difference between the two hitherto leading candidates for vice president, Representative Leni Gerona Robredo of the third district of Camarines Sur, and the only son of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, who carries his name, Senator Bong Bong, may be as wide as the distance between Batac, Ilocos Norte and Naga City in Camsur. The two are oceans apart in background, in principles, in values and in advocacies. But the number of those who voted for each of them was only separated by 263,473 votes.

In a voting population of more than 54 million Filipinos, only about 40 million actually cast their votes here and in our more than a hundred embassies and consulates all over the world. The 40 million voted for one of the five presidential candidates, but only 38 million voted for one of the six vice-presidential bets. At the final and official canvass by the national Board of canvassers, Robredo got 14,418,817, while Marcos obtained 14,156, 344 votes. It was a narrow victory, but to the Marcoses, it was their first taste of political defeat, if we do not count the times when Madam Imelda run and lost the presidency.

There is gloom in Ilocos, and anger among some rabid Ilocano partisans who thought that they were cheated when some guys change certain chips in the counting machine, without the official approval of the Comelec. Many OFWs are grumbling because, Leni has to admit it, Bongbong won very decisively among the migrant Filipino workers abroad. But, of course, Bongbong himself declared that Leni herself had nothing to do with any such act. It might have been, they suspected, some disgruntled LP supporters who wanted to assure the victory of Leni.

This column believes however that Leni really won fair and square. In Cebu alone, the strange combination of Duterte-Robredo dominated the polls. Cebuanos are really brilliant voters. They elected a very aggressive crime-buster who speaks in colorful vulgarity but whose fight against drugs and crimes is uncompromising. And to put a balance in the team, they have chosen a God-centered, righteous and "maka-masa" lady, who is a paragon of virtues and propriety. The team Digong-Leni is like sweet and sour, coffee and milk, and tuba and Pepsi. Leni Robredo is a lawyer, a defender of the poor and the marginalized. Bongbong has been a London boy, married to an Araneta.

Marcos can run again for the Senate in 2019, and for vice president or president in 2022.

In 2017, when the one-year ban shall have been lifted, he can be appointed by President Digong in the DILG, or Bongbong's chosen DOLE, if and when NDF-recommendee Bebot Bello will be tapped to focus on the peace process. Marcos can reconcile with Leni, and endear himself to Bicol. That planned electoral protest will achieve nothing. He should be man enough to accept defeat in the hands of the new Gabriela Silang from Naga.

What matters most is the greater interest of the nation, not sour-graping and being sore and lousy losers. There will always be another time.