“Strike while the iron is hot”
Sara's one and only chance of becoming a president is 2022. That chance may never come again.
Sara will be a very strong candidate. Survey after survey substantiates that. She has always been leading in all surveys, with Isko Moreno and Bongbong Marcos neck and neck in second place. In fact, the call for her to run for president is persistent.
She is not only popular, she has also her own political organization, the Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Add to that the other political parties that expressed support for her should she run. Unlike the current presidential candidates, Sara does not carry too much burden. Her father, President Rody Duterte, remains hugely popular.
For almost six years now, his bitterest critics have heaped on him all issues imaginable. Not one sticks. His war on drugs is widely embraced, especially by ordinary people who know the danger of living in an environment where shabu is sold like candies. In other words, whatever issues Sara may face would only be a repetition which peace-loving Filipinos have already ignored.
So based on credible surveys, if the elections were held in June, September, or even today, Sarah is already a sure winner. Although, if substitution happens on November 15, her assurance of winning is already affected as the momentum of support has already been gradually faded due to her ambivalence.
Bongbong will continue to spend much of his precious time to ward off any and all attacks against his father. Leni is weighed down by the perception that she is incapable of getting her message across, a difficulty comparable only to Pacquiao’s. Her PR team is working overtime to package and repackage Leni. She is also doing all she can to escape from the curse of yellow politics.
Isko will face his organizational problem, and Bato will only divide a part of Duterte supporters. Lacson must overcome the idea that his time is over.
Sara may have set her sights on the 2028 presidential election. By then, there will be a completely new political atmosphere. In politics, every second matters, and at any second the wind blows from different directions. New issues will come, so will new favorites of the masses.
If she would run for the vice president of Bongbong, that means she lets go of a chance of a lifetime. Sara must be reminded that no one can recreate a phenomenon.
Cory’s rise to power was a product of a phenomenon. So was Noynoy’s. President Duterte became president with the phenomenal call of the people for change, with the slogan “change is coming.”
The overwhelming call of the day is continuity. In the minds of vast majority of the Filipinos, only Sara is in the best position to continue what her father started, and whatever her father built, a Sara presidency cannot afford to squander it.
It may be said that Bongbong is loyal to Duterte, but up to when, we cannot say. We are certain that when the president leaves office, his opponents will lose no time running after him. When worse comes to worst, it is easy to imagine that Sara will do everything to put up every legal available defense for her father.
If anyone aside from Sara becomes the president, who can stop them from having their own pick in 2028? No one can. Who can stop them from creating their own party with a super majority to render Sara’s current political party irrelevant? No one can. That is simply what politics is in this country; political parties rise and fall, depending on who sits in Malacañang.