Like campfire kindling that takes time to put ablaze on a cold and damp night, the Gilbert Teodoro-for-president movement is beginning to crackle. At least that’s what I hear more and more ordinary people are saying—never mind the self-serving claims of his campaign staff and political allies.
Can it be true that “Gibo,” despite his underdog—nay, dismal—showing in early popularity surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, is the candidate who would, in the end, consign the presidential aspiration of his first cousin, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to the ash-heap of history? With three-and-a-half months left in the current campaign until Election Day, I say this is no longer a far-fetched notion.
I’m sure I’m not dreaming, and I’m not saying Teodoro will get my vote, but a groundswell of support for Gibo—at least in Metro Manila where the so-called intelligent vote may be found—seems to have sprung lately.
People who didn’t otherwise know a thing about this “bright, tall and handsome” young man before the election season began now seem totally enamored of him and absolutely sure he’s the only man who could lead the nation to the promised land. But fanatics are like that, you might say. Villar, Erap and Dick have their own “armies” of rabid supporters that are willing to brave the extra mile for their leader, so what else is new? The kind of enthusiasm I am talking of is the very contagious one; the one that spreads as rapidly as an epidemic. One can right away spot those afflicted with the Gibo fever, most of them youngsters and university students. Gibo admirers proudly sport green rubber “bowler” bracelets on which is written the slogan, “Galing at Talino” (competence and intelligence). Nobody can dispute that candidate Teodoro, ranged against the survey front-runners, has what it takes to become a successful president. That he would be a competent leader, if and when he is elected, has never been questioned by any of his rivals. And this is what has inflamed the imagination of his youthful following—his education, training and grasp of the depth of the nation’s problems and that, above all, he is handsome.
Many are in fact surprised that he is rising in popularity despite the so-called extra baggage that he has to lug around—which is the GMA factor. Many people, including his rivals, have long been saying that were it not for his closeness to GMA and his refusal to renounce such ties, he would have had an excellent chance of clobbering the rest of the field.
Even retired Pangasinan Bishop Oscar Cruz, the outspoken and consistent critic of President Arroyo’s presidency, frankly said in recent radio interviews that among the presidential candidates, only Gibo has the three attributes that he thinks a president of the republic must possess, which are “integrity, competence and character.” He said his opinion is no secret, even to Teodoro himself.
I can only surmise that the lackluster kickoff of his campaign got a tremendous boost a few weeks ago after he “stormed” the University Belt to explain some of the planks of his proposed program of government. Yes, he has a plan, unlike one survey front-runner who can only mouth off empty slogans. After that brief sortie (colegialas, I heard, practically smothered him as he “pressed the flesh” and dispensed autographs on his campaign fliers), the University Belt was not the same again. “The Gibo-mania virus had found a rich breeding ground to multiply and spread,” according to a professor of the University of the Philippines.
Personally, I am impressed, though I still have some reservations about him. He projects himself well on national television, exhibiting a fine intellectual grasp of the nation’s problems, and the humility to say some of those problems can’t be solved overnight. Other candidates have pledged to cure the sick, enrich the poor and rescue the downtrodden from injustice and impression. The only promise they have not made is raise the victims of the Ampatuan massacre from the dead.
My only point is there seems to be a kind of fever that has lately infected many people—especially the young voters—at least in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country. In university mock polls as well as in Internet surveys on who would most likely win the May 10 elections, Gibo is the acclaimed winner. The fever has evidently begun to spread and continues to spread in the A, B and upper C income brackets. Gibo’s camp, in fact, publicized his 47-percent rating in Facebook, where Gordon is a close second and Noynoy a poor third.
Many people in the upper-income brackets seem to have found in Gibo the very qualities that they believe a good Philippine president should posses. Perhaps Teodoro is doing the right thing by bringing his cause to the young voters of the land. This is reminiscent of United States President Barack Obama’s enormously successful campaign. Obama concentrated on the young American voters who had traditionally left politics to their folks. He inspired them to take matters into their own hands, and it worked. The fired-up youngsters became an effective “army” that swayed their elders to vote for Obama’s program of change.
The inevitable question now is, with only a little over three months before Election Day, does Teodoro have enough time to catch up and overtake the survey front-runners? Villar’s powerhouse slate (representing all political persuasions from Left to Right), his well-fed campaign kitty (consisting of billions in seed money, plus hefty contributions from the business sector) and generally low-key campaign tone are enormous advantages serving him well up to this point. Of course there is that pesky “C-5 budget” scandal that hounds him to this day, but I don’t think the stink it will raise will have too much damage on his candidacy.
There, too, is former President Estrada’s “Erap para sa mahirap” bid. Erap has a strong base of loyal supporters from the ranks of the poor, the carryover following (or what’s left) from his election as the president who got elected by the largest majority (11 million votes) in the country’s history. Not one of his rivals would write off Estrada’s candidacy at this junction of the campaign, not just yet now that the Commission on Elections has ruled that he is a qualified candidate.
And there’s Sen. Dick Gordon, whom everyone acknowledges as a “darn good manager.” As chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, Gordon was in the forefront of all efforts to help those affected by the many disasters that hit the country. He might have been “immodest” in claiming that he put “Subic” on the world map through various programs that highlighted his managerial skills. But he was right! Still, without a party machine backing him, the question remains: Can he win?
And what about the “star” of the show, Noynoy Aquino? Every time he opens his mouth he loses votes, I always say in my Monday-to-Friday radio program. You can count on him to self-destruct, fizzle out, go kaput in the end. I believe he doesn’t have the fundamentals—but this is the rub—he is still the survey front-runner at this point. All I can say is, poor Philippines, what grievous sin have we committed to deserve him?
Can it be true that “Gibo,” despite his underdog—nay, dismal—showing in early popularity surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, is the candidate who would, in the end, consign the presidential aspiration of his first cousin, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to the ash-heap of history? With three-and-a-half months left in the current campaign until Election Day, I say this is no longer a far-fetched notion.
I’m sure I’m not dreaming, and I’m not saying Teodoro will get my vote, but a groundswell of support for Gibo—at least in Metro Manila where the so-called intelligent vote may be found—seems to have sprung lately.
People who didn’t otherwise know a thing about this “bright, tall and handsome” young man before the election season began now seem totally enamored of him and absolutely sure he’s the only man who could lead the nation to the promised land. But fanatics are like that, you might say. Villar, Erap and Dick have their own “armies” of rabid supporters that are willing to brave the extra mile for their leader, so what else is new? The kind of enthusiasm I am talking of is the very contagious one; the one that spreads as rapidly as an epidemic. One can right away spot those afflicted with the Gibo fever, most of them youngsters and university students. Gibo admirers proudly sport green rubber “bowler” bracelets on which is written the slogan, “Galing at Talino” (competence and intelligence). Nobody can dispute that candidate Teodoro, ranged against the survey front-runners, has what it takes to become a successful president. That he would be a competent leader, if and when he is elected, has never been questioned by any of his rivals. And this is what has inflamed the imagination of his youthful following—his education, training and grasp of the depth of the nation’s problems and that, above all, he is handsome.
Many are in fact surprised that he is rising in popularity despite the so-called extra baggage that he has to lug around—which is the GMA factor. Many people, including his rivals, have long been saying that were it not for his closeness to GMA and his refusal to renounce such ties, he would have had an excellent chance of clobbering the rest of the field.
Even retired Pangasinan Bishop Oscar Cruz, the outspoken and consistent critic of President Arroyo’s presidency, frankly said in recent radio interviews that among the presidential candidates, only Gibo has the three attributes that he thinks a president of the republic must possess, which are “integrity, competence and character.” He said his opinion is no secret, even to Teodoro himself.
I can only surmise that the lackluster kickoff of his campaign got a tremendous boost a few weeks ago after he “stormed” the University Belt to explain some of the planks of his proposed program of government. Yes, he has a plan, unlike one survey front-runner who can only mouth off empty slogans. After that brief sortie (colegialas, I heard, practically smothered him as he “pressed the flesh” and dispensed autographs on his campaign fliers), the University Belt was not the same again. “The Gibo-mania virus had found a rich breeding ground to multiply and spread,” according to a professor of the University of the Philippines.
Personally, I am impressed, though I still have some reservations about him. He projects himself well on national television, exhibiting a fine intellectual grasp of the nation’s problems, and the humility to say some of those problems can’t be solved overnight. Other candidates have pledged to cure the sick, enrich the poor and rescue the downtrodden from injustice and impression. The only promise they have not made is raise the victims of the Ampatuan massacre from the dead.
My only point is there seems to be a kind of fever that has lately infected many people—especially the young voters—at least in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country. In university mock polls as well as in Internet surveys on who would most likely win the May 10 elections, Gibo is the acclaimed winner. The fever has evidently begun to spread and continues to spread in the A, B and upper C income brackets. Gibo’s camp, in fact, publicized his 47-percent rating in Facebook, where Gordon is a close second and Noynoy a poor third.
Many people in the upper-income brackets seem to have found in Gibo the very qualities that they believe a good Philippine president should posses. Perhaps Teodoro is doing the right thing by bringing his cause to the young voters of the land. This is reminiscent of United States President Barack Obama’s enormously successful campaign. Obama concentrated on the young American voters who had traditionally left politics to their folks. He inspired them to take matters into their own hands, and it worked. The fired-up youngsters became an effective “army” that swayed their elders to vote for Obama’s program of change.
The inevitable question now is, with only a little over three months before Election Day, does Teodoro have enough time to catch up and overtake the survey front-runners? Villar’s powerhouse slate (representing all political persuasions from Left to Right), his well-fed campaign kitty (consisting of billions in seed money, plus hefty contributions from the business sector) and generally low-key campaign tone are enormous advantages serving him well up to this point. Of course there is that pesky “C-5 budget” scandal that hounds him to this day, but I don’t think the stink it will raise will have too much damage on his candidacy.
There, too, is former President Estrada’s “Erap para sa mahirap” bid. Erap has a strong base of loyal supporters from the ranks of the poor, the carryover following (or what’s left) from his election as the president who got elected by the largest majority (11 million votes) in the country’s history. Not one of his rivals would write off Estrada’s candidacy at this junction of the campaign, not just yet now that the Commission on Elections has ruled that he is a qualified candidate.
And there’s Sen. Dick Gordon, whom everyone acknowledges as a “darn good manager.” As chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, Gordon was in the forefront of all efforts to help those affected by the many disasters that hit the country. He might have been “immodest” in claiming that he put “Subic” on the world map through various programs that highlighted his managerial skills. But he was right! Still, without a party machine backing him, the question remains: Can he win?
And what about the “star” of the show, Noynoy Aquino? Every time he opens his mouth he loses votes, I always say in my Monday-to-Friday radio program. You can count on him to self-destruct, fizzle out, go kaput in the end. I believe he doesn’t have the fundamentals—but this is the rub—he is still the survey front-runner at this point. All I can say is, poor Philippines, what grievous sin have we committed to deserve him?
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