Chasing Grace

Should President Aquino anoint Grace Poe as his successor, and turn his back on longtime loyal aspirant Mar Roxas, it will be a repeat of how his mother let go of loyalist Ramon Mitra to support Fidel V. Ramos in 1992.

Mitra had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and had the support of the traditional politicians. In contrast, Ramos had not occupied any elective office and his stature owed to his heroic role in the 1986 Edsa People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship. Mitra seemed formidable because of the “trapo” support but was easily outdone by Ramos’ popular support coupled with President Cory Aquino’s valued endorsement.

The déjà vu will not end there. It’s not just that now another sitting president will spurn a proven loyalist in exchange for the perceived winnable. It’s also that the perceived winnable embodies the hope of a new order while the loyalist represents the entrenched cliques who have not really delivered, going by their performance under the P-Noy administration. Poe is not allied with any political party or faction, except perhaps being identified with a veteran politician, Sen. Francis Escudero, while Mar Roxas has cultivated faithful followers and managed to place them in key government posts. That might be seen as a plus, since it means that Roxas can hit the ground running. But running where and toward which direction is the question. Poe carries no such baggage, has no acolytes to reward, no fiefdoms to preserve, and abundant prospects to fulfill.

But should Poe join forces with Roxas, it is the memory of her late father that will be dishonored. Remember that in the 2004 presidential derby when Fernando Poe Jr. squared off against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Roxas was snugly ensconced in GMA’s camp, which mocked FPJ’s supposedly paltry credentials for statesmanship and untested capacity for leadership.

In other words, when FPJ was cheated “not once but twice,” in the words of his wife, the actress Susan Roces, Roxas was in the cheering cabal that popped the proverbial champagne bottles to celebrate six more years for GMA in Malacañang. After all, Roxas was GMA’s No. 1 senator in 2004, leading the Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan (or K4) Senate coalition. Poe will thus make common cause with the camp that belittled her father’s simple yet noble dreams, and robbed him of victory.

And Poe must recognize that her Senate victory owes much to her father’s name. What an irony if she will lend that name to benefit a group many of whose members had mocked him in the past, and some of whom had abandoned GMA only when GMA’s ship was sinking. She will thus put a principled quest in the service of political opportunism.

Now, more than ever, Poe must wean herself from traditional politics, and prove what FPJ before her tried and failed to show: that a political outsider can win without the backing of traditional politicians who are the bane of Philippine democracy. It may be good for symbolic reasons to highlight the theme of “continuity,” of sustaining the reforms begun by President Aquino. But now that Poe seems destined for greater heights of power, she must stand for something more than just continuity. She must ask what it was in FPJ that endeared him to the common folk, and why they wanted an outsider, a nonpolitician, to be their president.

The people have been disappointed, not once but twice. The first was at Edsa I, when the anti-Marcos triumph was betrayed with scandal after scandal, coup attempt after coup attempt, and the glorious dreams of the People Power revolution were laid to waste. The second was at Edsa II, when one president was replaced and jailed for the crudeness of his plunder, and another was enthroned and who spurned the crudeness but plundered just the same.

If Grace Poe is to sustain the emerging elation of her availability for higher office, she must turn her back on the traditional politicians, their coterie of loyalists, and the vested interests they represent. For her to ally with the “trapo” is for her to betray the core reason for the Filipinos’ turn toward grace—namely, the hope that they can begin anew.

Indeed, she has much thinking to do. And because she won because of the good name her father left her, she must nurture that legacy carefully so that it benefits only those candidates who are truly worthy.

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