A-COURTING
MANILA, APRIL 24, 2012 (STANDARD) Written by JoJo
Robles - President Noynoy Aquino is in courtship mode once again. Only this
time, instead of going after women who have caught his ever-roving eye, he's
wooing powerful people who could keep him from being an irrelevant lame duck for
the rest of his term.
Last weekend, the assiduous suitor Aquino—who has never been known to be
patient at social or even official gatherings—sat through four hours of speeches
made in honor of Joseph Estrada on the latter's 75th birthday. Earlier in the
week, Aquino made the unprecedented gesture of going to Binay at the Veep's
official residence at the Coconut Palace, needing only flowers to complete the
picture of a visiting bachelor seeking a fair lady's approval.
The reason for the courtship is simple: Aquino wants the Binay-Estrada power
bloc by his side, knowing full well that this is the political coalition that
could make his administration miserable for the remainder of its term, should it
use its swelling numbers and increasing clout against Malacañang.
But, as Facebook tells us, the relationship between Aquino, on the one hand,
and 2010 running mates Binay and Estrada, on the other, has always been
complicated.
Let's consider Estrada first. The still-popular former President, who ended
up second to Aquino in the 2010 race for the presidency, was once the object of
derision by the Aquino family, which wholeheartedly joined the groups
(collectively known to Erap as the "evil society") that plotted to bring him
down and to install Estrada's Vice President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The same groups that conspired to remove Estrada in 2001 are still very much
around Aquino today, even if the current President is no longer considered an
enemy of the family after it turned its back on Arroyo over the Hacienda Luisita
dispute. In keeping with the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend,
Aquino has made the peace with Estrada—who, ironically, was jailed by Arroyo
upon the urgings of the same people who worked so hard to oust Erap and who
remain in the current administration's camp to this day.
(Of course, the civil society groups that removed Estrada also turned their
back on Arroyo a couple of years after she assumed the presidency. How's that
for complications?)
* * *
As for Binay, well, it's been long accepted that while the Veep has always
been a loyal ally of the Aquinos, the second-highest official of the land
assumed his post at the expense of Aquino running mate Mar Roxas. And Roxas,
according to impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, wants the Supreme Court to
oust Binay by siding with Roxas in the latter's electoral protest case against
the longtime Makati mayor and Aquino loyalist.
Now that Binay has resurrected his alliance with Erap, who picked him as his
running mate, through their new United Nationalist Alliance, Aquino has
definitely taken notice. So Aquino is now trying very hard to project the image
that his administration (and LP, by extension) is actually not at odds with
UNA—which Aquino hopes will never bolt from Malacañang. But why should Binay
remain in Aquino's camp if it will mean his eventual ouster by Roxas? And why
should Estrada support Aquino when Malacañang is thickly populated by the very
same people who removed him from the presidency more than a decade ago?
It comes as no surprise, then, that both Binay and Estrada have been content
to keep their suitor guessing. While both say that they still support the Aquino
administration, they have pointedly continued to form their own senatorial
lineup for next year's elections, independently of what Aquino, Roxas and LP may
be doing to create their own team.
Politicians of all stripes except those truly committed to Aquino (and there
are really very few of those who are expected to win) have already voted with
their feet. Nearly everyone who is believed to have a good chance of making it
to the Senate next year —and many others who don't—are making a beeline for UNA;
LP, at this late date, with a little over a year left till May 2013, can't even
seem to come up with a complete slate of 12, despite the obvious advantages of
being candidates of the administration.
And that is truly what must be worrying Aquino these days, as he struggles to
preen and seek to impress both Binay and Estrada— both of whom, as politicians
much smarter than the President, simply keep the latter hanging on their every
pronouncement. Both know that it's Aquino who needs them, after all, and not the
other way around.
Meanwhile, Aquino seems no longer interested in the outcome of the Corona
impeachment trial, something which he monomaniacally pursued for almost half a
year now. But that could only mean that Aquino has either given up on securing a
conviction from the Senate or he is convinced that a successful courtship of the
Binay-Estrada combine is the only way for him to achieve the removal of the
chief justice.
About the only thing that's certain is that Aquino is no longer smugly
confident that his own popularity is going to keep him afloat in the days ahead.
He is showing that he needs not just a woman to marry but also powerful allies
in order to survive.
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on
/2012/April/24)
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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