18,352,290

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

18,352,290
Sunday, 06 24, 2007

That is the number of votes garnered by Loren Legarda in topping the recent elections for senators in the Fourteenth Congress that will last until 2010. To be more emphatic about her winning, she is over 3 million votes clear of two other senators-elect who have a similarly moist eye on the presidency of the country in 2010.

That is the number of votes Loren will have to protect, to serve as her base votes for the presidency in 2010, if at all she will choose to run.

Corollarily, that is the same number of votes, plus some more, she will lose in the event she does not perform well in the Senate in the 14th Congress.

At the start of the campaign in February this year, astute observers of the political landscape have been registering her moves as well as those of two of her colleagues in the Genuine Opposition (GO) ticket, and have extrapolated that the presidential ambitions of these three will come to a showdown in 2010. Not to mention that outside of the GO, there are still a couple of others who can hardly wait to join the brawl for that seat in Malacañang.

Loren, however, seems to have the edge over the rest — that the electorate gave her these unprecedented 18,352,290 votes (and still counting), sends an all too clear message: Prove yourself worthy of these votes, and we will give them again to you in 2010.

Which is why I am bothered by all these endless pleas for her to make a run for the Senate presidency. I see these pleas as more of an attempt to make her bid goodbye to her presidential ambitions.

True, the Senate presidency could be her launching pad for the catbird seat in 2010, but given the unforgiving demands of the position — where each one of her 22 colleagues in the Chamber thinks, rightly or wrongly, that he or she is also presidential material — Loren could suffer the fate that befell then Senate President Jovito Salonga in 1991, prior to the presidential elections in 1992. (Salonga was ousted in December 1991, in the run-up to the campaign for the May 1992 presidential elections. From the day he was elected Senate president in July 1987, he was believed to have started to nurture presidential ambitions for 1992, and his actions along this end were far too obvious for his colleagues in the Senate to conclude otherwise).

Being Senate President makes one more of an administrator rather than a senator who is expected to make good in lawmaking, oversight and constituency building. The administrator will be hard-pressed to strike compromises with his colleagues, just to continually maintain his grip on at least 13 votes to keep him in office. Every senator is out for himself, there is no mistake about that, and he wants to lead the chamber every time he finds the chance.

The one sitting in the podium today can never be too sure he will preside the session the next day. The powers of the Senate presidency, and the ambition to wield those powers, are too tempting to be simply disregarded by a senator. But that is the only advantage, and it is only fleeting, until the next overthrow attempt.

The Senate president has to constantly watch his back, lest the Brutuses (and there are many of them) in the chamber bury their knives on his back. If the overthrow attempt against the sitting Senate president succeeds, he could very well end up mired in the kankungan, never to rise again.

It is the big, deafening crash that follows the fall that the ousted Senate president must avoid. He could be broken into smithereens, never to be whole again; never to be strong again to fight for the presidency of the land.

The Senate president can dispense favors - why ever not? — but after he is ousted, those he gave favors to will find it convenient to forget him in favor of another. This is understandable, for even the source of his largesse, out of which he dishes out favors, will be closed.

Which is why the people will go with Loren anytime, if only she concentrates on doing what she does so well: lawmaking, oversight and constituency building.

She did well as a majority leader in the 12th Congress. Belonging to the majority in the Senate in the 14th Congress, being the most senior among the 14 opposition senators, and having admirably done honor and justice to that position in the past, she can very well take up the post of majority leader again.

As majority leader, she will have a firm hold on the legislative agenda of the Senate. She could steer the proceedings in the chamber in the same efficient fashion she did in 2001-2004, and come out a performer in the eyes of the people. She could speak out, without fear of displeasing anyone and face the threat of ouster, on the many issues confronting the government. Compromises will never even go past the front door, and that is what the people will admire most in her: fearless and uncompromising. And she will have enough time to build on the infrastructure of her organization for the big battle in 2010, perhaps even organize or strengthen a political party she sorely needs for the purpose.

The elections last May proved Loren to be the real winner in the 2004 vice presidential elections. The overwhelming results in her favor show the people’s preference for her in 2004 that must be realized in 2007 up to 2010. That is for Loren to live up to, and she must give back to the people what they expect from her: a sterling performance.

The Senate presidency will not give her that chance. Serving as senator will.

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