One-on-one bout for the presidency for truer PH democracy?

I AM not a political analyst. But one does not really have to be one to be able to reasonably predict that a one-on-one fight between Mar Roxas and Jejomar

Binay in 2016 would more likely make the latter the country’s next president. Of course, there may be antidotes to this scenario, each of which must collaborate with one another. One, Roxas should learn to publicly project his own truer image, not just appear to be President Aquino’s sheer shadow. Two, he must beat Binay in the next surveys. And third, the administration must be able to convince Grace Poe to be Roxas’ running mate.

As things are, the administration allies have not yet totally given up on the third. The thing is, as Poe herself keeps saying in public, the President has never yet categorically asked her to run with Roxas. Neither, for that matter, has he asked the two other presumptive vice presidentiables (Vilma Santos-Recto and Leni Robredo) who have both declined running, if at all, for any position higher than a seat in Congress or Senate. Alas, maybe—well, just maybe—there is some sort of a “pakiramdaman” syndrome going on in this connection. Whatever, this has not helped the administration’s objectives any. Indeed, for heaven’s sake, if you were in Poe’s shoes, would you dare accept an offer that at best is more imagined than real?

I refuse to believe that Poe is so naive as not to realize that her spectacular rating in the surveys is not all she needs to win the presidency. As a matter of fact, Poe had herself admitted not too long ago that there were two things she still needed to even consider running for president: administrative experience and political machinery. The one, Poe may ignore or take for granted for a while; the other, she better not, lest she reveals her extreme naivete in politics.

On the other hand, I strongly feel that Poe is going to be a sure winner for vice president—whosoever her opponent will be—even if she runs as an independent candidate. That said, the President’s drum beaters should now give up hoping for a Roxas-Poe tandem.

In sum, with previously perceived presidentiables Rodrigo Duterte and Joseph Estrada declaring to all and sundry that they are not running for president; with neither Ping Lacson nor Miriam Defensor Santiago, who are both cellar-dwellers in the surveys, showing resolve to run for the presidency; and with Alan Peter Cayetano (also a cellar-dweller) recently indicating his interest in the vice presidency under the administration’s ticket instead, I personally welcome very much the emerging likelihood of a one-on-one between Roxas and Binay. At the very least, we would then be seeing for the first time in many years a president who is duly elected by majority vote. After all, shouldn’t that be a relatively truer democracy?

—RUDY L. CORONEL, rudycoronel [email protected]