The anointing

THE LINES are drawn. President Aquino’s full-throated endorsement of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as the Liberal Party candidate for president in 2016 did three things at once: It continued the themes Mr. Aquino discussed in his last State of the Nation Address, it deepened the contrast between Roxas and declared presidential candidate Vice President Jojo Binay, now the leader of the opposition—and it complicated the entry of Sen. Grace Poe into the presidential race.

First: The President’s resonant rhetoric at the close of his last Sona on Monday was a promise that the achievements he claimed under his “daang matuwid” (straight path) would continue. “Simula pa lang ito (This is just the beginning),” he said again and again. His obligation then (the word he used in Club Filipino the following Friday) was to “make certain that all we have accomplished will not be for nothing.”

(Mr. Aquino spoke mostly in Filipino, as is his wont; Malacañang released an official English version, as is the longstanding practice.)

In meeting his obligation, the President said, he looked for the right person certain not merely to continue his administration’s policies, but to embody the values of his daang matuwid: “Someone who, we’re certain, is more than capable; someone who, we’re certain, has no Boss other than the Filipino people, who, we’re certain, owes no debt of gratitude to any other, someone who, we’re certain, has no interest other than country before self.”

Other members of the political class, and many Filipino citizens, have taken issue with the moral earnestness that drives the Aquino administration—either challenging its sincerity or questioning its hypocrisy. But friend or foe must recognize the logic of Mr. Aquino’s particular set of criteria: If it defines itself by its advertised values, it must choose its next standard-bearer according to those same values. The President’s endorsement of Roxas thus emphasized continuity not only in policies but also in principles.

Second: As an endorsement speech, Mr. Aquino’s necessarily accentuated the positive—his administration’s accomplishments, his candidate’s qualifications. But strewn all over the speech were examples of negative behavior that, taken together, may be seen as the administration’s description of its political rivals and, in particular, of the man who on the day he resigned from the Cabinet declared himself the true leader of the opposition.

Consider: “I do not wish to open the possibility for an individual to stay in power their whole life, whilst only looking out for their own selfish interests.” Or: “That is the fate of those focused on true change, instead of on photo-ops and on putting their names and faces on novelty items.” Or, especially: “The work of politicians who seem to want to keep our countrymen in dire need, so that they will be approached for everything—from food and medicine, up to weddings, baptisms, or wakes. These, in turn, are the debts of gratitude they rely on during election season, so that they can perpetuate the poverty of the many, and the growing wealth of the few.”

Fairly or not, these passages are taken as references to Binay, who has been struggling with corruption allegations aired in the last year or so, whose family has controlled Makati City for over two decades, and who is a highly successful example of traditional politics. Binay also defeated Roxas in the contest for the vice presidency in 2010, and is certain to run for president. But Mr. Aquino’s endorsement already outlines Roxas’ campaign strategy against Binay for the second contest: Focus on the corruption allegations, criticize Binay’s practice of attaching the Binay brand to “novelty items,” attack his use of patron-client relationships in politics.

And third: President Aquino referenced two other political allies in his search for a candidate, without naming them. “I interviewed three people who, in my view, are allies in pursuing the straight path.” Aside from Roxas, he was of course referring to Senators Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero. “In my view, these three people could form a truly formidable team.” But the talks fell through. The President’s language suggests that he has not closed the door on them, but in contrasting Roxas and Binay so sharply, he has made it somewhat more difficult (but not impossible) for the popular Poe to define herself as the third candidate in the race. The lines drawn include her, too.