The Philippine Online Chronicles

Nation, seeing how our beloved president is decidedly a lock in the congressional race in Pampanga, nothing can sully my mood right now. Surely, we will continue to feel her presence in the government well beyond June 30, and for that, I am very happy and content. The only thing that would have made me even happier was if she became our new president instead.

Looking at the election results so far, I couldn’t be more shocked, in all honesty. What was originally touted as a Villar-Noynoy bout suddenly became an Estrada-Noynoy war. The man whom our beloved president replaced in 2001 for being so ridiculously corrupt and shameless, the very same man who was convicted of plunder, and then subsequently accepted a pardon with a condition that said he should never seek public office again, is practically neck-and-neck with Noynoy Aquino, who, while still ahead of Estrada, is not by any means posting convincing numbers against his closest rival.

At this point, Villar isn’t even a factor anymore, unless something miraculously happens within the next 48 hours. All the mudslinging between Aquino and Villar suddenly became a non-issue, and we were all blindsided by Estrada’s unexpected surge in popularity at the last possible moment.

Nation, it boggles my mind that things came down to this. Personally, I all but wrote Estrada off already when I was looking at things, because I didn’t think the Filipino people would actually do something as absurd as to send back to the presidency someone they already kicked out, after he clearly broke his own promise when he accepted our dear president’s pardon. Where is the integrity there? Would we have given the same kind of respect to president Arroyo if she went back on her word? Of course not! She is a woman of integrity and sure-footedness, unlike her predecessor, Estrada.

So Noynoy would likely win now, barring Erap having something to say about it. Was this a surprise? Given how much weight was thrown behind Villar’s bid for the presidency, and how I believed that Noynoy’s premature rise in popularity way back in August would spell his doom, then yes, color me surprised. I’m just as surprised that the elections actually went this well, to begin with, when I was expecting divine intervention to keep our president in power.

As surprised as I was about that, though, nothing could prepare me for the surge Jejomar Binay is enjoying at this very moment. I was almost certain that it was going to be a lock for Mar Roxas to win the vice presidency, but I suppose I simply didn’t count on the game suddenly changing right before my very eyes and right under my nose.

I should’ve known that the minute Chiz Escudero endorsed a Noy-Bi tandem, the mood would change in an instant. I underestimated Chiz because I felt disappointed he didn’t run for Vice President with Gordon (Who wouldn’t want some Dick-Chiz?), the way I felt disappointed that we didn’t get Jam-Bi since she apparently doesn’t swing that way.

I still stand by my belief that the surveys don’t matter nearly as much as the actual polls and what your gut tells you. If the votes represent the surveys, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s fine, too. What’s important is that the choice you made was your choice. In this case, it appears that the nation made the choice that Chiz Escudero made, and I’m left wondering... why? Why him? And why Noy-Bi?

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: while Chiz may pretend all he wants to be against GMA, he actually learned a thing or two from his godmother. Chiz has successfully manoeuvred himself into the most favourable position he can ever hope for in 2016, as he most likely finally makes his abruptly-abandoned plans to take the presidency. It didn’t really matter who he endorsed as president as long as the man won. He just needed to ascertain that the man he would put in a prime position to contest him wasn’t someone who would earn so much good will that he couldn’t overcome the eventual VP’s headstart.

Nation, whether or not you support Jejomar Binay, you cannot deny how polarizing the man is, especially in an environment where the likely president is someone whose presidency would’ve validated Mar Roxas’s “sacrifice.” If Roxas won, the support for Noynoy would have almost translated as support for Roxas, all the same, and Chiz would have been hard-pressed to run against someone who would have hypothetically earned that much political goodwill.

This does not appear to be the case with Binay, though. Not only is Binay polarizing, his surge towards the vice presidency is now largely attributed to Chiz’s endorsement. Gone were the days when we’d get a celebrity whom people look up to as an endorser for a politician. Now, we have crooks endorsing fellow crooks: and guess what? It works! Chiz’s gambit, as of this writing, is working, and this puts him in a prime position to capitalize on his apparent pull by using that pull on himself come 2016, thus catapulting a vice-president and nullifying what should’ve been his toughest competition by then at the same time. This is a masterful stroke, and for that, the Chiz stands alone.

Nation, as we look forward to a parliamentary system that will bring back our future House Speaker GMA into power, I will forever rue this day and think upon the sheer brilliance of Chiz Escudero. Perhaps, if there were truly a person I could believe in beyond our beloved president, Chiz Escudero could very well be that man. He is every bit as brilliant as his own godmother, and any man who can plan this far ahead will certainly reap the benefits of his meticulousness. This man is clearly someone whom I can get behind, without a doubt. He has everything that it takes, and these elections is testament to his clout to turn things on their head, especially since prior to his endorsement of Binay, the man was a distant third in the race for the vice-presidential position. If a man could influence voters to the point that Chiz has, then it’s safe to say he will be able to translate that kind of power into something useful for him come 2016.

And with that, assuming our beloved president will let him, this early on, I would like to give my seal of approval upon Chiz Escudero as your president in 2016, nation!

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The views presented in this article are not necessarily shared by those of the POC, Chip Tsao, Stephen Colbert, or even the author himself.)