INDEED politics is pretty much like gambling. When a person is into it, it becomes his or her “psychological black hole.” It is addictive. It has something in it that makes a person lose his or her ability to get out of it.
Possibly this could be the reason why the framers of our present Constitution came up with a cap in the number of terms a politician is allowed to serve his or her elective position. Unfortunately Filipino politicians have their unique way of going around circumventing the Charter. If they are fortunate enough to win in all elections allowed them for the position and the cap comes, all they need to do is field their sons or daughters. In the process they still remain in politics even if they are not anymore the incumbents. All they need to do is influence the manner with which the relative politician does his or her job.
This scenario had happened in the country’s political make-up and it is happening again this coming May 2022 national and local elections. In Davao City for example, gauging from the initial list of possible endorsees by the local political gods for candidates for councilors in the first district alone, it can easily be deduced that persons who are either sons or daughters of last termer city dads are dominant. The first district situation is likely to be the same in the second and third districts. Therefore, when the 2022 election campaign starts rolling family names of candidates will not be stranger to voters. Some of those running will be banding around that they are out to continue the good deeds and performances of their mother or father. And as experience will tell us, the voters had been for the longest time hoodwinked into believing that this and that political personality has the monopoly of the attributes of a good public servant.
But of course we cannot blame these politicians. After all we need not take a peep into the “psychological black hole” to find out what are inside that seem to be so great enticements to remain in its confines.
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So Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio has openly declared she is not running for President because she wants that only one Duterte will be running for a national position this coming election? And since her father the President has accepted the nomination to run for Vice President in the PDP-Laban Cusi faction, thus it would only be he who will run. Any speculation that she will run for the Presidency has to be quashed.
To give credence to her statement the lady mayor added that she will seek reelection to the present position she is holding – that of mayor of Davao City.
As soon as this statement of Mayor Sara was released, speculations started floating around that the possibility is the administration tandem for the Presidency and Vice Presidency will be a Marcos-Duterte. Meaning it would be former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte for President and Vice President, respectively. Many political analysts ranging from the most professional to the coffee shop habitue, the bias and the fair, are saying that the duo could be difficult to beat by any of the opposing teams whoever will they be. They cited the strong regional bailiwicks that both are expected to bank on. Marcos has his Ilocano speaking regions in the north and Duterte has his Cebuano-speaking areas of Mindanao and the Visayas. Indeed it sounds logical given the regional biases of people and the distribution of developments in the country over the years.
But again, for now, it is not the possibility of having the fruits of development evenly distributed that is being keenly watched by the voters. Rather, they busy themselves speculating as to who really is the Duterte who will team-up with anyone chosen by the administration to run for President. Yes, some still feel that there could be a repeat of the 2016 filing of candidacy scenario where the other Presidential candidates believed the then Davao City Mayor was already out of the running after it was another who filed and carried the PDP-Laban banner. But after the deadline of the substitution of candidates it was already a different story.
In other words, it is still not far-fetched that next year’s administration tandem will still be a Marcos -Durterte tandem. And the mayor’s wish of a single Duterte running in the national scene followed. But this time the lone Duterte in the national scene could be SHE. That is she might be goaded to substitute for her father.
So, even if she may have filed her candidacy for reelection as mayor of Davao City her younger brother can easily take over her place and the better for him because apparently there is no one known so far who may be willing to run against mayor Sara.
Is a Marcos-Duterte (Sara) tandem likely to happen? Of course and there will be no more legal impediments whatsoever.
