By Ducky Paredes
A REPORT says the person that President Aquino will endorse as successor may not necessarily come from his own Liberal Party. The problem with having to choose a party member to run as his candidate is that all the surveys indicate that, if he does this, we may end up having a certified crook as President.
His choice for President has always been Interior Secretary Mar Roxas who gave up his own plans to run for president to give way to Aquino in 2010. Roxas was the LP candidate for vice President, who surprisingly lost to Jejomar Binay.
Most observers give Roxas no chances to beat Binay for president. Binay, despite having been under investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon, is still the leading candidate for 2016. He lost some support but still leads all comers in pre-
election surveys, including the legitimate ones, by a huge margin.
In an interview with reporters, the President said he was consulting other parties regarding the matter while the ruling Liberal Party (LP) is in the process of building a consensus on who should be its standard bearer in 2016.
“Do you talk to the United Nationalist Alliance on the consensus?”
“Not directly to UNA, but I did talk to somebody who came from UNA,” he said, referring to Vice President Jejomar Binay, who remains the frontrunner among the presidential hopefuls for 2016.
The President, who is also LP chairman, said he and Binay met on several occasions before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits, at the height of the Senate probe into allegations of
corruption against the Vice President. The two highest officials of the land talked at the Bahay Pangarap for a few hours.
“I don’t talk to Toby Tiangco or others. I did talk to the Vice President. So I cannot say that I did not talk to any of them,” Aquino said.
“I engage everybody who wants to talk to me, even those who are fond of giving unsolicited advice,” he said.
“Those who helped us in 2010, those who are helping us now, as well as those who came forward after 2010 to help us and declare their solidarity with our advocacy – those are the people we’re engaging with,” Aquino said.
“I take note of the their advice that I don’t solicit. If they bring up something, I tell them my opinion,” he said.
“We engage in political discussions, but we don’t discuss specific candidates,” he clarified, declining to reveal who he wants to endorse.
What is more important, Aquino said, is that the party is building a consensus to make sure its standard-bearer for 2016 is the top choice of its members.
“In our party, consensus is important. One cannot just talk about something that’s not yet agreed upon. So I am not at liberty to talk on behalf of LP, and if I talk on an individual basis, the time is not yet right,” he explained.
“Well, at the very least, the consensus-building processes are being conducted,” Aquino stressed.
LP is also seeking inputs from supporters as part of its selection process. The party’s primary The news coming from the President’s Palace objective is to ensure that reforms started under the Aquino administration are carried over to the
next administration.
Senate President Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, has not given up on supporting Roxas’ presidential bid.
Drilon, LP vice-chairman, said he is not very comfortable supporting a bet from another political party.
“I am a partyman, and I would prefer a party-member. We do not lack talents in our party,” he said.
“If he expresses his interest, I will support him,” he said, referring to Roxas.
But Drilon said he has not discussed the issue with his partymates “precisely because we are so busy.”
The Senate president said he has not yet discussed the LP’s plans for 2016 with President Aquino.
“We’re so busy with so many things at the moment to have time for consultations. The President I’m sure is very busy and I can’t speak for the others, but I haven’t had the chance to have consultations with the President on the specific
issues,” Drilon said.
***
During his visit to Singapore -- the President got some free advice from Singapore politicians that the one who will succeed him as President in 2016 should be someone in the same mold who will take to the Daang Matuwid where this
President has taken the Philippines and to which we owe the present success of our country. One thing that Singaporeans know is that their success as a country comes from the principled management of Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew
and his followers who have been running Singapore since after World War Two.
Clearly, a return to the crooked ways of the past will not do us any good and may actually throw this country into the dustbin of history.
***
Sadly, most of the people who could lead this country look like they are not willing to do so. Even Mayor Duterte says that he cannot be President because he has a bad back, forgetting that one of the best presidents of the 20th Century
was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was American President during World War Two, even as he was paralyzed and was on crutches.
Senator Grace Poe and Congreewoman Leni Robredo of Camarines Sur who are seen as women of strong character and will hew to the Daang Matuwid, seem uninterested.
So is former Senator and presently rehab czar in the Yolanda-affected area. He has done a good job and has been on the straight and narrow even when he was Senator. He refused to partake of the PDAF or the pork barrel given to
legislators -- Senators and Congressmen – and which created the monster called Napoles and will maybe put some of our senators in jail. Sadly, friends who have talked to Ping Lacson report that he might run for a Senate seat but is not
interested in the presidency.
For the sake of the country, someone who is not a crook should show some interest in running this country.
***
Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@gmail.com or you can send me a message through Twitter @diretsahan
No comments:
Post a Comment