Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD) is running as standard bearer of the home-grown political party, Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL) which he himself founded.
His challenger is youthful Karlo Nograles, once his Cabinet Secretary and latter appointed by him as Chair of the Civil Service Commission (CSC). Nogtales is son of Duterte’s political nemesis, the late former Speaker of the House of Representatives Prospero “Boy” Nograles.
The two mayoralty candidates’ political battle will be a case of a senior undefeated veteran versus a not-so-newcomer in local politics. Karlo whose days in Congress as Davao City’s First District Congressman were also replete with significant performance. Karlo was already the most talked about potential strongest to eye City Hall when he was cleverly “sucked” into the Duterte vortex. That particular then President Duterte move was a shrewd one since Karlo could be thought of by the Davao electorate as suddenly having a major “debt of gratitude” to the former President.
It was a clever scheme to pull him out of Davao City where allowing the young Nograles outside the ex-president’s circle will give him more time to move around the city to build and strengthen his following.
On the other hand, Karlo’s having been re-appointed by Marcos, Jr. to the chairmanship of the CSC is not at all a boost to Karlo’s political stock, although it was a recognition of his capability. His appointment made him associated with the national administration, specifically the President who is now FPRRD’s top target of his harshest criticisms.
As such the young mayoral candidate is now vulnerable to the assumption of the Duterte backers that he is a willing pawn of Marcos, Jr. just to have someone to fight the former President in his own battle ground; that he too, is one person who casually forgets a huge “debt of gratitude” from his former benefactor.
Yes, and this far from the start of the official campaign period, the social media trolls, the media personalities known for their bias for this and that candidate are already activated. On Facebook and You tube alone the vloggers supporting their preferred candidates or political groups are virtually all over.
Weeks back we have observed that the pro-administration vloggers and trolls were dominating both Facebook and You Tube. But of late the pro-BBM vloggers appeared to be eased out by the surge of pro-Duterte cyber warriors.
They are now more focused on issues with local implications. Somehow, there is a sense of apprehension. A number of older loyal backers of the former Mayor believe that that the former Chief Executive should not take Karlo for granted. Their reason is that there is a surge of young voters in the city.
On the other hand Nograles also seems to have realized that fighting a political battle, especially when the “enemy” is strong, can be compared to a game of basketball – the best defense is offense. So, if the young Nograles is now observed to be starting his offensive both in the social media and personal community interactions to buoy up his chances of putting up a credible fight with the former President for the city’s chief executive position.
Meanwhile, her sister Atty, Migs who is running against incumbent Congressman Polong in the first district, should also immediately assemble her tacticians and assign some “sleuths” from among them to research areas or issues where her nemesis is vulnerable. If she doesn’t and just rely on hearsays and imaginations then PBA Representative Migs’ desire of unseating incumbent Polong is already doomed.
How about Vice Mayor aspirant Dr. Benie Al-ag? Our take is that for him to show that the Al-ags of Toril are vote-getters, he should meet head-on Baste’s campaign scheme by carrying the latter’s style in doing his pitch for the Davaoeno voters’ support. This he can effectively do much better if his candidacy will be beneficiary of logistical support from the national administration and private backers.
After all, it cannot be denied that the group of the former President where Baste is a leading member, is fully “loaded” with the logistics needed to run a local campaign. And that is what Dr. Bernie and company will have to confront with. Sans the commensurate logistics – financial and material – any political group or individual candidate, cannot even cover half of Davao City or an entire district in campaigning.
But who knows? The younger generation voters might gravitate to a courageous challenger to the incumbent mayor who slid down to the second highest position in the city to give way to his father.
*****************************
Honestly, we find it difficult to imagine why Philippine laws allow people facing crimes against society to run for public office. In fact we could help but think that those aspiring to become elected officials are taking the loopholes on the laws to their maximum advantage. With their “popularity” apparently gained through notoriety, these people make it their stepping stone in offering themselves to elective positions they desire.
And their advisers with clearly twisted logic buoyed up by their own greed and interest push the notoriously popular friends of theirs to run. Perhaps they believe that with their “notoriously” popular friends’ names becoming easy recall, the gullible electorate catapults their backed bets to office.
We need not mention anyone since we know the names of those concerned individuals who are easily recalled even with just a click of a finger.
