Charisma for Gibo; a free show for Villar!

Last Sunday, we were at the ParkMall to support the Youth Volunteers for Gibo Teodoro and Doctors for Gibo to meet former Defense Sec. Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro for a short meeting with him. Actually, Gibo was in town for a meeting with the group of Pastor Quiboloy at the Cebu International Convention Center, but he wanted to personally meet the Gibo volunteers first. Hundreds of people turned out at the ParkMall. The last time I met up with Gibo was last January at the Presidential forum dubbed “Choices & Voices for 2010.”

What I also didn’t expect was the kind of reception Gibo got in ParkMall, which was akin to fans mobbing a rock star! I knew that Gibo was a charismatic man, but it was the first time I saw this up close. Reading my political history, in the 50s (I was still a little boy), the most charismatic politician to emerge from the corrupt Quirino administration was also a former Defense Secretary who became President: Ramon “The Guy” Magsaysay. I got a personal history of Pres. Magsaysay from my mentor the late Sir Max Soliven because Pres. Magsaysay was “Ninong” to his wedding.

From what I see about Gibo, he is fast emerging as the Magsaysay of tomorrow. He has more charisma than Pres. Magsaysay as Gibo’s presence can translate to votes for the undecided. Meanwhile, we know that the campaign of his cousin and principal rival, Sen. Noynoy Aquino is dropping down fast. I interviewed the Youth leaders and they told me that they find in Gibo a hope for a better leadership in this country.

Indeed, in Gibo, hope springs eternal! In his very short speech, he emphasized to the volunteers and fans that he was waging a very high-level campaign and would never resort to a negative campaign, although we know that he has always been subjected to black propaganda. But he pointed out the he always answers those negative tirades against him.

For instance, he is always tagged as GMA’s man, which is why his rating was so low at the start. But when the text messages showed the Manny Villar was the secret candidate of GMA and that Gibo was no longer the choice of the President, this was an opportunity for the undecided to choose him because he no longer had any links with GMA. But the best proof that Gibo is a man of his own came from is own uncle, Amb. Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. who practically disowned Gibo for running for President without his nod. This proves once and for all that Gibo had always been with the Nationalist Coalition Party (NPC) and therefore he is not GMA’s man!

But as we wrote last week, the Campaigns & Images survey done by a UK and US based companies having businesses in the Philippines placed Gibo clearly as a strong 3rd placer, unseating the faltering Erap campaign. There is no doubt that Gibo is now a real threat to the Noynoy and Villar campaign because he is now a double digit figure in the surveys. Francis Manglapus who heads the Gibo campaign, asked me why this survey wasn’t published. My only reply was that, the survey was done to find out the real standing of the candidates, as it wasn’t done by a political group.

Meanwhile, Sen. Villar bagged The Freeman headlines last Sunday when he got the blessing of his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. But let me clarify that anyone, from Noynoy, Gibo to Jamby can get the same blessing from the Cardinal if they ask him because this blessing is not the political kind. The Cardinal never reveals his candidates.

Incidentally, Villar also had a big time “pakulo” at the Mandaue Reclamation with Willie Revillame for a free show. We’ll find out whether there were a lot of people in that free show. I would really like to know whether a show like that would still translate to votes, especially when Cebuanos are so knowledgeable on the C-5 controversy hounding the Villar campaign.

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Last week, there were two fires that struck the homes of my friends; the first fire took the life of a good friend, Rolando “Landi” Caberte, his daughter Ma. Charmaine and her son15-year-old Miguel Paolo and their helper Alma de la Torre in their apartment in Capitol Site. Landi was an old friend, who worked with Philippine Airlines (PAL) until his retirement years ago. Landi was the ultimate husband and father, so devoted to his wife Sheila. Words really cannot express the loss of Landi and his daughter and grandson, except that they are now in heaven together.

The other fire struck the house of my dear friend Cecil Saa of Blue Horizons Travel & Tours, but fortunately she was at work when the conflagration happened. At least Cecil only suffered property damage and no lives were lost. These two fire incidents should teach us lessons that while Fire Prevention Month will still usher next month, we should already be prepared for the worst, especially with the coming heat of the summer months.