http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/10029-gibo-teodoro
On Tuesday night, I was invited to a fund-raising dinner for Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro at the Manila Polo Club, the Makati dining hall and playground of the rich and famous. I was impressed. I couldn’t find a parking slot. Every available parking space was occupied by a late model limo or SUV. The affair was set at 6 p.m. I arrived at 7 p.m. Gibo showed up at 8 p.m. to the thunderous applause of the SRO crowd of more than 1,000 people.
Gibo came with his beauteous wife Nikki, 10-year-old son Jaime and mother Mercedes Cojuangco Teodoro. If Gibo trails behind three presidential candidates—Noynoy Aquino with 45 percent of the vote (per surveys), Manny Villar with 35 percent, and Joseph Estrada with 15 percent, you wouldn’t have noticed it.
Sporting a light green shirt, denim pants and brown loafers, Gibo had the look and confidence of a winner. He went to every table pumping hands and posing for photographs.
Then he delivered a brief but meaningful speech. “We have already won,” he declared to the wild applause of the audience. Victory, he added, is ours to lose. He talked about “true change.” The Philippines could lead its neighbors he said but will stand still “if we don’t take a stand now.” He repeated a famous quote from his speech when he launched his candidacy last year “Our destiny is not merely to get by, but to live and to conquer. And conquer we shall, because we must,” he said.
Gibo is currently doing just 5 percent in voting preference surveys. Though that is a vast improvement from 1 percent a few months ago, it’s still a long way to go before reaching the level of Noynoy. He has got to have more exposure and participate in those debates where he does well and is able to project himself well, as knowledgeable, straightforward and sincere.
Gibo is the best qualified of the presidential candidates: High school at Xavier 1981, BS Commerce at La Salle 1984, Law at UP 1989, Master of Laws at Harvard 1997, a reserve colonel and a pilot.
He epitomizes the old mould of Philippine presidents—young, competent, charismatic, a lawyer and a bar topnotcher. All Philippine presidents who were lawyers were bar topnotchers—Manuel Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Carlos
Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos. However, not all bar topnotchers who sought the presidency were successful.
Two failed—Emmanuel Pelaez, who lost to another bar topnotcher, Marcos, and Jovito Salonga who lost to a West Pointer, Fidel V. Ramos.
Another class of Philippine presidents are military men or men with a military background. Manuel Roxas was a lieutenant colonel in the USAFFE. Ramon Magsaysay was a guerrilla captain and later Defense secretary. Fidel Ramos is a four-star general and had been Defense secretary. Gibo also has a military background.
Gibo, however, is hampered by two things. One, he started his campaign late. His rivals (except for Noynoy) have been campaigning these last three years. Two, he is identified with President Gloria Arroyo, the most unpopular president in history.
If Gibo doesn’t make it to the presidency this year, it will take another 40 or 50 years before we can have a presidential candidate in his mould—a lawyer and a bar topnotcher. With the possible exception of Elpidio Quirino, bar topnotchers were generally good presidents.
Correction
In my column on Tuesday, I referred to Sal Panelo as Sam Panelo, the lawyer of Marites Alcantara (not Castañeda as I earlier reported) and her son, Arvin Alcantara.
Sal Panelo didn’t file the criminal and civil complaints on Tuesday as he had told me on Monday. He told me Tuesday he would file the charges today (Thursday).
The criminal case will be filed in Pasay and involves violation of three laws—on grave coercion, child abuse, and conveyance of special children by carriers.
Defendants in this complaint are the pilot, the four cabin crew, and the three Cebu Pacific vice presidents who signed the memo, which limits the number of mentally ill passengers to two in a single flight. The memo was used by the crew to classify an autistic child as a mentally ill patient, which he is not.
The respondent in the civil case, to be filed in Antipolo, is Cebu Pacific itself. The suit seeks P5 million in damage.
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