Getting to know you

It’s intriguing that President Duterte and his faction of the PDP-Laban appear to have lost interest in supporting a candidate for president, although the party has come out for his daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, in her bid for the vice presidency.

An emerging scenario has been acknowledged even by some of Ferdinand  Marcos Jr.s’ own partisans: he may win the presidential race in May, but with the snail’s pace of deliberations on his disqualification case by the Commission on Elections, he may be disqualified with finality only after the votes have been counted.

If the final DQ happens before he is sworn in as president, the candidate with the second highest vote is proclaimed winner. As of the last survey, Vice President Leni Robredo was in second place.

On the other hand, if the final DQ ruling is handed down by the Supreme Court after he has been sworn in, the newly elected vice president automatically assumes the presidency. As of the recent surveys, Mayor Sara was the frontrunner for VP.

In a talk with his preferred TV interviewer, who is related by marriage to his sister Irene Marcos-Araneta, Marcos said he wouldn’t mind if he gets DQ’d if it is Mayor Sara who takes over as president.

For sure, the Duterte administration wouldn’t mind either.

*      *      *

While the supposed allies glad-hand as they grope each other’s backs for the best spot to plunge the knife, we have about three months to get to know the applicants for the nation’s highest posts.

Cynics like to say that Filipino politicians are all alike, mouthing the same motherhood statements, long on promises but short on the details of how they intend to deal with the nation’s serious problems.

Our chaotic multiparty system is partly to blame for this. Candidates not only flit from one party to the next, they also create political parties to fit their personal agenda.

In a system with two dominant, opposing parties, the lines can be clear on where candidates stand on key issues. But this is not the case in our anything goes system.

So we focus on personalities rather than issues, on messaging. From news reports, interviews, statements and our own previous talks on OneNews’ “The Chiefs” with five of the presidential contenders, I have inferred these themes underpinning their campaigns, to differentiate one from the others:

Labor leader Leody de Guzman: It’s time to try a president from the masses.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno: As in the city of Manila, I can get things done.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson: I have the experience and clean record to restore trust in government.

Sen. Manny Pacquiao: I clawed my way out of the gutters; I feel your pain.

Vice President Leni Robredo: I have shown that honest, decent and dedicated governance is possible.

It’s noteworthy that two of the candidates have come a long way from extreme poverty: Mayor Isko the former scavenger from Tondo, and world boxing icon Pacquiao, a former vendor.

De Guzman didn’t sift through the Smokey Mountain dump, but he is a farmer’s son from Mindoro. Two candidates are middle class: Lacson and Robredo.

Only one belongs to a dynasty – Marcos – and his clan, led by his mother Imelda, could be the richest in the country if the wealth would be accurately inventoried and declared.

*      *      *

Marcos has the standard comment on critics of dynasties: voters can always put an end to the bad ones. His campaign message is a play on his initials BBM: Babangon muli. Some miffed administration officials who maintain that the country is doing well under Duterte are wondering if Marcos is referring to his father the late dictator who will rise again from the dead.

Probably confident in his ratings, BBM is still avoiding major interviews. How long this can hold remains to be seen. Avoiding interviews worked for Joseph Estrada in 1998, but not for Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004. When FPJ granted STAR publisher Max Soliven a TV interview, the one-on-one was catastrophic for the candidate.

People are waiting to see the impact of Marcos’ avoidance of potentially hostile interviewers on his numbers, especially after the one last week with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas. BBM’s snub of the KBP led to the hashtag #BaBackoutMuli, after the “Marcos duwag” tweets when he refused to be interviewed by the “biased” Jessica Soho of GMA-7.

The KBP includes about 300 television and radio stations nationwide. Its three-hour interview offered an unprecedented opportunity for exposure for the candidates.

Four of the five aspirants were media-savvy enough to prepare for the KBP interview, with proper framing against a solid backdrop, and clear audio and video connection to ensure that their answers would not be ruined by tech glitches.

*      *      *

TV is a cruel medium, and livestream shows equally so. Every twitch on your face, every fidget can convey the wrong message. Merely looking up for a few seconds to think, which is normal in ordinary conversation, can make you look indecisive or stupid on TV.

Mayor Isko was prepped and framed like a president; that must have been his show biz background at work. Lacson was also fully prepared and businesslike, although rather humorless. Pacquiao was in fighting form, defending his academic deficiency by asking a valid question: what have the educated, articulate politicians done for this country? De Guzman, who eschewed a barong or business suit in favor of the usual shirt worn by a labor leader, was a revelation for many, although it’s doubtful that his ideology will gain widespread support.

Only VP Robredo, to the dismay of her supporters, came off unprepared, even if she readily answered the questions. Awful connectivity garbled her answers plus her PowerPoint presentation. Her face was badly framed on screen.

She has apologized for this, explaining that she joined the interview from a borrowed spot at the airport as they waited for their flight to bring relief goods to Odette-hit areas. Her spokesman Barry Gutierrez has taken the blame for the connectivity problem, and has vowed to do better next time.

Robredo loyalists will remain loyal. But the battle as the formal campaign period starts is to win over undecided voters and poach rivals’ supporters to widen your base.

For the frontrunner, his worries go beyond Zoom glitches, or finding excuses to dodge unfriendly interviews. If the speculative stories turn out to be true, he might yet get neutralized, and it won’t involve technology.