ROSE ANNE Bartolome got it all wrong when she suggested that given his ratings in the vice presidential race, candidate Chiz Escudero may be on his way to Malacañang in 2016 as leading presidential candidate Jejomar “Jojo” Binay’s sidekick… and himself unstoppable as the next president in 2022 (“A caveat against Chiz,” Opinion, 1/1/16).
Binay has been announcing, “Kung ano ang ginawa namin sa Makati, yun din ang gagawin namin sa buong bayan.” Plain translation: What we did to the City Hall of Makati, we will do the same to Malacañang.
Does Escudero really believe Binay will give him the time of day after the latter’s term expires? Escudero will have to contend with the junior or his siblings and the rest of the ambitious Binay dynasty! This is not to say that the Binay patriarch himself would not try, after a hiatus, to do an “Erap” (who tried to challenge the constitutional ban against reelection in 2010)! That has been the way of the Binays for decades! Power intoxicates all of them.
And here’s the really scary thing: If Binay becomes president in 2016, he will be appointing 11 loyalists to the Supreme Court during his six-year term—definitely an overwhelming majority out of 15 justices! We already know how the appointees of former president Gloria Arroyo demonstrated their loyalty to her. What then are the chances of the plunder charges against the Binay family prospering before a Supreme Court packed with whimsical wimps who know nothing but to suck up to them? And if those cases should somehow remain pending after his term, would Binay trust a chameleon like Escudero to take care of him and his family? Fat chance!
—RIMALDO PACIFICO, pacific.rim.aldo@gmail.com