Dark Horse?

by Antonio C. Abaya
from Standard Today

Frankly, I do not know what the derivation of the term ‘dark horse’ is in a political race. Presumably, all the other contenders in that hypothetical race are of white or fair-colored mane, and a challenger of a black or darker mane would stand out because he is different from the others.

It is therefore incorrect to say that Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who has recently announced that he is seeking the presidency in 2010, is a dark horse challenger.

He is not a dark horse. He has more or less the same mane as all the others, meaning he comes from the same political elite as all the others. And he does not represent any point of view or program of governance different or distinct from all the others.

The fact that Teodoro graduated from the Harvard Law School does not make him a dark horse. Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile also graduated from the same school, but he never claimed to be a dark horse when he ran for the Senate x number of times. The late vice-president Doy Laurel was a graduate of the rival Yale Law School, but he did not project himself as a dark horse when he ran for president in 1992. Both Enrile and Laurel knew they came from the power elite and did not try to sell themselves as anything but.

And the fact that Teodoro is a favored nephew of Danding Cojuangco does not make him a dark horse either. On the contrary, it all the more makes him ‘one of the boys’ in the fraternity of trapos jostling for positions of power in this accursed country.

What could possibly make Teodoro a dark horse is if he were to espouse positions contrary, even inimical, to the conventional wisdom of the trapo culture from which he comes.

Such as batting for the dismantling of political dynasties, as called for by the 1987 Constitution. But he is not likely to do that since he himself comes from a prominent political dynasty in his home province of Tarlac.

His own wife Nikki succeeded him in the Lower House after he was appointed secretary of national defense by President Arroyo in 2007. And he is surrounded by uncles, cousins and other direct relatives prominent in local and national politics. Dark horse? Of course not. He is just one of the boys (and girls).

And what exactly has Teodoro done as secretary of national defense to merit the presidency? I honestly do not know.

Did National Defense Secretary Teodoro manage to suppress, cripple or defeat the Communist insurgency? No way. President Arroyo is still talking of crushing the Communists by 2010. Why wasn’t she, through him, able to crush it in 2008 or 2009?

Did National Defense Secretary Teodoro snuff out the separatist rebellion of the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao? Negative. The separatists almost conned the Arroyo government into giving them virtual independence last year, and were stopped only by local government officials who went to the Supreme Court to protest the sleight-of-hand. What was the role of Teodoro in all this drama? Innocent bystander? That is just not good enough for a presidential contender.

Did National Defense Secretary Teodoro do anything to expedite the trials for plunder or unexplained wealth of Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, Lt..Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Lt. Col. George Rabusa, all of whom stand accused before the Ombudsman since 2005 of accumulating wealth that cannot be explained by their modest salaries? Again, negative.
This is his area of jurisdiction. There is no excuse for not having done anything.

And what about the military officers accused of participating in the electoral fraud of 2004, or the military officers accused of violation of human rights before and during his watch? What has he done to resolve these issues?

Gilbert Teodoro suffers from comparison with Ramon Magsaysay who, as secretary of national defense under President Elpidio Quirino, crushed the Huk rebellion, convinced thousands of rebels to surrender and return to the mainstream, and restored people’s confidence in the government. And Magsaysay was justly rewarded with the presidency in 1953 when the opposition Nacionalista Party made him their candidate against the vastly unpopular incumbent Quirino.

Teodoro is no Magsaysay. He has not done anything to merit a reward like the presidency, and his role in 2010, if he persists in his ambition, would be to sing hosannas to the vastly unpopular Gloria Arroyo, his uncle’s new business partner in San Miguel.

(What people may remember of Teodoro as member of the Lower House is that he led a movement for the impeachment of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilarion Davide, a move seen as an effort to influence pending cases in the Supreme Court involving Danding or his corporations.)

Over and above having done nothing significant or momentous as secretary of national defense for two years, there is also the problem of not having said anything significant or momentous during his entire career as a public official..

Like his uncle Danding – my classmate in the Ateneo during freshman high school, until he moved to The Other School because he could not do Latin – Teodoro is not an inspired or inspiring public speaker. How does he expect to compete, toe to toe, with such seasoned orators as Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, Ping Lacson, and Dick Gordon, and veteran TV anchors Noli de Castro and Loren Legarda?

(Danding at least proved that one does not need Latin to become a billionaire and a pre-eminent presidential crony.)

So aside from having nothing to say, he also does not know how to say it. An infirmity akin to that of FPJ. But FPJ in 2004 was already a household word and an established icon in millions of star-struck Filipino homes, which Teodoro is not in 2009. FPJ did not have to open his mouth – and he pointedly didn’t – to win over millions of masa voters who had absolutely no idea what he would do if he became president..

But Teodoro has to open his mouth. With Danding’s billions, Teodoro can employ the best elocution tutors, image-builders, PR strategists, media-for-hire, spin doctors, mercenary opinion-makers and political technicians that money can buy. But there is only so much that they can do. Ultimately, it has to be Teodoro himself who has to sell himself on his own merits, on his own two feet. And the best that can be said for him at this stage is that it will be a hard slog.

The authentic dark horses in 2010, if they should decide to run, would be people like Tony Meloto, Jun Lozada, Gov. Among Ed Panlilio, Gov. Grace Padaca, Nandy Pacheco and Chief Justice Reynato Puno. But their chances of winning are low. That’s why I do not see any future for this country except through a revolutionary transition government.

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