A CASE OF WRONG POLITICS While his handlers are busy in publicly projecting his political invincibility in 2016, Vice President Jojo Binay has not done much to project an image of integrity to deserve the mantle of leadership after President Benigno Aquino III bows out of office. The Vice President has rightly courted the Liberal Party-led ruling coalition to become its standard bearer in 2016 with Mar Roxas as his running mate, but he has done anything to justify his anointment. Proof: He has not cut political ties with the Estradas - Erap, Jinggoy, and JV. Despite his public projection of invincibility, Binay wants to enjoy the best of all worlds, behaving as if he were the center of the universe in Philippine politics. He hardly knows, or understands, or feels the political contempt he has been reaping from other political parties and entities. This is exactly the reason the Vice President only has the support of the basically apolitical presidential sisters, despite his insistence of political strength and invincibility in 2016. What he has earlier believed as mass exodus of pro-administration political entities to his camp is not taking place. Binay exemplifies wrong politics. His naivete shows when he wrongly believes that he could or would be the center of political gravity in 2016. He does not know, or understand, or feel, that this is something not bound to happen because of his political alliance with Erap and Jinggoy, whose tarnished reputation springs from a single reason - their weakness on money. Even Binay suffers from a tarnished reputation arising from the plunder charges his enemies have filed before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the construction of the P1.5 billion parking building in Makati City. Potential political allies would not dare touch him with a ten-foot pole because of the several graft charges against him. Despite his soaring leads in opinion polls, the Vice President does not appear to be the easy winner in 2016. He could only generate the support of potential political allies. On the contrary, pundits believe that Binay could only get their support if he does a series of moves: First, he has to jettison the Estradas - the sooner, the better. Credibility is the function of his immediate dissociation with the Estradas, who personify high stake corruption in public office and constitute a political baggage for him. He has to distance himself from Juan Ponce Enrile and other opposition leaders, who have credibility issues. Second, Binay has to make a clear and unequivocal commitment to the anticorruption agenda, which the President has initiated when he assumed the presidency in 2010. He has to make it absolutely clear that he intends to run after the plunderers and bring to the rightful conclusion the plunder charges filed against Jinggoy, Enrile, and Bong Revilla. Moreover, he has to make it crystal clear that he does not intend to go slow on them, but, on the contrary, see the wheels of justice would continue to grind against them in the post-PNoy era. Third, Binay has to pass the litmus test of integrity in public service. This does not appear possible at the moment, when he faces several plunder and graft charges before the court. At the moment, Binay enjoys the support the political opposition, led by the UNA, which has been grossly weakened by the imprisonment of Jinggoy and Enrile. He enjoys the support of a broad segment of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, although history has shown that a fraternity-based political run in the country is improbable and not winnable. Given the fickle-mindedness of the Filipino voters, who favor a certain candidate at a given moment but shift to another candidate in another moment, the Vice President is not a shoo-in in 2016. He has to do a lot of things and employ what is regarded as right politics in his quest for the presidency. In brief, he has to show that he is on the right side of history if he wants the Filipino people to anoint him as the next leader.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 08:10:08 +0000
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