PASSING LANES

Team Unity’s debacle, Ate Vi’s lament
Jorge Pawid

Election officials last Wednesday evening proclaimed the top 10 new senators victorious in the May 14 local and national elections. These new lawmakers will serve from noon of June 30, 2007 until noon of June 30, 2013; or a term of six years.

The Commission on Elections will proclaim the last two winning senators after they shall have canvassed all votes from the remaining Mindanao provinces whose returns have yet to be counted by the National Board of Canvassers.

And until the results of the still to be scheduled and conducted Maguindanao Special Elections shall have been canvassed, there will be 12 new senators .

Among the 10 new senators; six are from the Genuine Opposition (GO), two from Team Unity (TU) and two independents.

As of last Comelec count, renegade soldier Antonio Trillanes IV and Koko Pimentel, both of GO, are holding on to the 11th and 12th slots respectively. Hoping to dislodge Pimentel is TU bet Miguel Zubiri whose votes from Surigao del Norte (his bailiwick) are still to be canvassed.
With the proclamation of the ten winning senators, the administration’s TU conceded that the most winning bets they can place in the new Senate will be three faces, if Zubiri could squeeze his way in and push Pimentel or Trillanes out of the Magic 12.

Palace officials these week debunked claims of the GO that the poor showing of TU in the senatorial race was not due to the “loss of trust by the electorate in the Arroyo administration”.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita claimed that the expected support from machineries and logistics of local candidates allied with the administration did not materialize in most areas because the local bets had to fend for themselves in their own candidacies. That was a very acceptable reason from the Palace.

Ermita was quick to disagree that the administration suffered a defeat in the just concluded polls citing that the new House of Representatives still has its loyalty to the Arroyo administration having won most of the seats. And the same is true among the thousands of local positions in the local governments.

Administration-allied bets won overwhelmingly the majority of seats as newly elected local officials for 2007-2010.

The picture could have changed for TU had the administration decided that there would only be one or a single administration ticket per local government unit. But such was not the case.

There were several administration bets gunning for the same positions. In some areas, there were slates or candidates allied the GMA-backed Lakas, the KAMPI, and so with Manila Mayor Lito Atienza’s Liberal Party wing, Senator Edgardo Angara’s LDP and the business tycoon Eduardo Cojuanco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) all at the same time contesting the same local positions.

So instead of campaigning for the TU senate ticket simultaneously, they had to battle it out among themselves for the local positions. Isn’t it that a candidate running for a local position should put his survival ahead before others. This is natural behavior.
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Batangas incoming governor Vilma Santos statement that her husband’s defeat in this senatorial race was because of the non-support of governors of the 73 provinces in the country to Recto’s candidacy is grossly unfair.

In the first place, Ms. Santos is not yet a member of the Governor’s League of the Philippines. She is still to be sworn in. So, how could she have gained the support of the league?

As Ermita said, candidates for local positions – among them gubernatorial aspirants and re-electionists were busy propping up their own candidacies. In fact, some of them lost their battles. Among them is Santos’ opponent, incumbent Batangas governor Armando Sanchez.

And in the Cordillera, we have Benguet and Ifugao governors Melchor and Prudenciano losing their seats despite belonging to the Lakas. Some incumbent governors gunning for congressional seats also lost their bids despite belonging to the administration. In fact, some lost to pro-administration aspirants.

This corner’s own analysis of the Recto debacle would point the blame partly to Ate Vi. Had she played statesman and decided not run for governor and not confront her brother-in-law (Vice Gov. Recto) in jockeying for the gubernatorial aspirant post, maybe the Batanguenos could have given Ralph a solid Batangas vote.

Instead, the Batangas vote for Recto’s re-election bid was split. As it is, Ralph’s brother ran for a congressional seat (and lost) under the GO while Gov. Sanchez (who also lost to Ate Vi) campaigned hard against Santos and Ralph.

In effect, Sanchez campaign against the husband and wife could have shaved off the supposed needed votes to propel Recto to a fresh term in the Senate.

This squabble, widely circulated in national print and broadcast media could have affected some prospective Recto voters from areas outside of Batangas to exclude him from their choices because they might have assumed that he was not fit to be re-elected because he simply could not unite Batangas politics.

Given Ralph Recto’s status as a national figure with all the respect attributed to him, he was expected by many to fix local political spats in Batangas, his home province. But by allowing Ate Vi to insist on running for governor and hurting Sanchez’ re-election, and his perceived inability to settle local political conflicts in Batangas, he might have appeared weak and this could have caused his candidacy.

Had Santos, Sanchez and the Recto family agreed to field a united ticket with each safely running for different positions, Ralph Recto could have possibly landed in the Magic 12. (My e-mail – strawberryorhe@yahoo.com)