Jumping the gun
Somebody has just jumped the gun. At the end of last Sunday's Mass, an announcement was made that an organization of Marcos loyalists was going to conduct a medical mission at a particular date. It was also announced that application forms will be given to senior citizens who could get up to P3,000 a month in aid and another P1,000 in medicine assistance.
There is no doubt that what had just been announced was tremendous assistance for the needy, who certainly couldn't care less where the assistance comes from. But there is no mistaking the sense either that the "manna from heaven" is somehow linked to the anticipated presidential run of Bongbong Marcos.
To the chagrin of an increasingly dwindling number of sleepless souls, the Marcoses and their relatives and allies have slowly but surely crept back up the ladders of power. Bongbong himself did pretty well in his 2016 vice presidential run, losing only by roughly 200,000 votes, or the population of four fairly-sized municipalities.
Many believe he actually won. I do, in more ways than just the contested election. In every election since the ouster of his father, politicians who cannot win on their own merits have always made anything Marcos an issue. For more than 30 years, with or without a Marcos, the names and everything it conjures have always been made an issue.
But now they are back, or at least are on their way. Bongbong's sister Imee had just been elected senator, in a contest where their critics and detractors have been completely shut out of the Magic 12, some even placing ignominiously lower than people you would not even vote for as a barangay councilman.
A cousin, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, has a pretty good shot at soon becoming the next speaker. And, of course, there is President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, a certified softie for the Marcoses. Everything looks pretty clear ahead for Bongbong even if he loses his poll protest.
In fact, if I were Bongbong, I would drop the protest. I was all against it in the first place even if I felt he won it. Pursuing the case runs the risk of being proven wrong, being declared as having truly lost. To me it is better to keep the question hanging. Besides, the sitting vice president, Leni Robredo, is doing a terrific job "self-destructing" with her inanities and incompetence.
But why are the Marcoses back, or so sure of a comeback that Bongbong is jumping the gun and starting so early? It is not because people have forgotten. They just grew tired hearing the same refrain. The 2019 midterm election was the tipping point. When people can't take it anymore the hated got voted in, the haters got voted out. Life is a cycle and patience a virtue.
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