FPJ joins the fray

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

FPJ joins the fray
Sunday, 11 30, 2003

Thirteen minutes of prime-time radio and television was all it took to change the county’s political weather. Fernando Poe Jr.’s announcement of his availability for the presidency surely bode of choppy waters, dark skies and rough sailing to a number to a presidential aspirants, prompting them to take a second appraisal of the 2004 landscape.

Expectedly, the spin doctors of the ruling party made mewling noises about how they will drub FPJ in May. One even condescendingly said, Artista lang siya, kayang-kaya ni GMA, - perhaps he’s too young to remember what they said about the late President Magsaysay: Mekaniko lang ‘yan, kayang-kaya ni Quirino. The scoffers had to eat their words came election day.

Unlike Magsaysay, here is a newcomer who has no political organization behind him, and yet could command millions to back up his candidacy – a complete tyro in the political arena who even before he made up his mind has been subjected to all sorts of smears and rumors to villify him even before he could toss his hat into the ring.

Indeed, FPJ’s political adversaries have a lot of counter-conditioning to do. How, for example, can they neutralize, to use a word we’ve lately heard as coming from Malacañang, the immense popularity of FPJ that can easily be translated to votes? Or how can they counter the avalanche of support, moral and financial, that came pouring in as soon as FPJ made his declaration? To those with sinister inclinations, how can they tweak the system’s program under the computerized elections to stem the expected tidal waves of votes for FPJ?

Sen. Vicente Sotto III was the lone politician during the announcement made at the Manila Hotel. Without any obstrusive circle of advisers, FPJ was surrounded by the very same group that was able to gather more than two million signatures urging him to run, a group that its organizers describe as having no agenda other than to push for the kind of populist President they want to lead the country. Student and young leaders like Wilford Wong, president of the De la Salle University Student Council, were also there. The fans were there, no doubt, in addition to his showbiz partners who lent a hand in organizing of the short and orderly proceeding. The crowd was surely an amorphous lot, but wait – where were the businessmen, politicians or usual gaggle of powerbrokers?

FPJ has always said he will run not because of the urgings of politicians or businessmen: rather, he will run because the people want him to. As evidenced by that persuasive and insistent draft of over two million signatures, Sen. Sotto thus describes him as the “Candidate of the People.”

He has no political party, and he needs one to have an effective machinery that will counter all the dirty tricks that the ruling party can dish out, a party in power that had better be mindful of consequences like the one in Georgia where President Shevarnadze was booted out of office after a rigged election. If FPJ must join a political party or be willing to be adopted by one – he will have to submit himself to the selection process of the opposition.

FPJ will have to join the roadshow of the opposition that seeks to feel the pulse of the people and get them to voice out their preferences among the candidates for national positions. The roadshow is a perfect vehicle for FPJ to expose himself to the critical glare of public scrutiny and evaluation before he goes through the crucible of the elections.

He will have to answer and clarify the issues against him. Beyond his avowal of sincerity, decency and unity,” he has to convince the people that he has a viable and realistic platform of government. The media and the usual self-appointed pundits of the so-called business community will be unsparing of him – it won’t be a movie shoot this time, and there will be no retakes if he flubs his lines. FPJ will have to brace up to questions about his yet untested ability to run the government.

All told, FPJ will have to contend with Sen. Ping Lacson of the Laban ng Demikratikong Pilipino (LDP), Sen. Nene Pimentel of the PDP-Laban and Sen. Gringo Honasan with his National Recovery Program. FPJ cannot expect the nomination of the opposition to be given to him on a silver platter. Lacson is the lone declared member of the LDP gunning for his party’s nomination, and FPJ will need something more persuasive than his star appeal to convince LDP party stalwarts like Rep. Butz Aquino that he deserves their support. FPJ may have to join that party to give him an insider’s chance in looking up the nomination. A complete outsider to the party may not get the nomination.

The parties which have openly declared themselves as opposition, like the LDP, Pimentel’s PDP-Laban and President Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino, and possibly Danding Cojuanco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition, have until Jan. 2, 2004, to choose their candidates. They must have only one candidate for President, lest the 60 percent of the votes that is conceded to them will be split two ways, thereby giving the current occupant of Malacañang the edge.

With FPJ in the fray, the opposition parties can now start the winnowing process. No one else is expected to declare his availability. Sen. Edgardo Angara and the rest of the leaders in the opposition have some hard work cut out for them: Unite and have only one candidate for President.



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