If the recent mid-term elections is a referendum of
some sort to the presidency of Chief Executive Rodrigo Roa Duterte, like all
his recent trust ratings, he has passed it with flying colors.
The “Duterte magic”
gave majority of his endorsements a winning result, and none is very
telling but the results in the senatorial nationwide elections, other than
Grace Poe, Lito Lapid, and Nancy Binay who ran independently- all the rest-9 of
them are from the administration backed coalition.
For the opposition- a disastrous shut out in the
elections 0-8!
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| (photo credit to Daily Tribune) |
Concept Central published a very enlightening and
well written piece regarding the Otso Diretso defeat.
“defeat of the Otso Diretso means the Filipino people are still very pleased with
the way President Duterte is running the government, and with his relentless
war against illegal drugs. It also means that the occasional odd remarks made
by the President in public are non-issues as far as the people are concerned.
It is also a slap on
the face of outgoing Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who in just six weeks will morph
from a noisy, opinionated troublemaker in the Senate to an irrelevant has-been
who will probably be in hiding for fear of his own shadow.
Otso Diretso’s downfall
at the ballot box should also be enough reason for the pharisees in the
Catholic Church, like the double-talking Luis Cardinal Tagle and his highly
politicized bishops Socrates Villegas and Pablo Virgilio David, to shut up and
stop their unfounded criticism of the President.”
For
purposes of public knowledge and convenience we have fully quoted below the
Concept Central’s article published in the The Daily Tribune titled “What the Otso
Diretso defeat means” for our reading public.
What the Otso Diretso defeat means
If the partial, unofficial results
of Monday’s midterm elections are an indication of the final tally, none of the
eight anti-administration Otso Diretso senatorial
candidates are going to make it to the winning circle of 12.
According
to the tallies, Otso Diretso candidate
Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino is at 13th place, while another Otso Diretso candidate, Manuel
“Mar” Roxas II of the Liberal Party (LP), is at 16th place. The other six are
trailing far behind, almost assured of defeat.
If
the current trend continues, the Otso
Diretso will end up as Otso
Olat. So much for the LP’s self-serving claim that the people are
quietly supporting the anti-administration ticket.
Actually,
the Otso Diretso was
doomed from the start.
The
failure of the LP to field a full slate of 12 was already an indication of its
unpopularity, due mainly to the abusive way LP politicians comported themselves
when they were in power. In politics, large scale unpopularity translates to
inevitable defeat in the polls.
Another
factor is that the Otso Diretso has
no moral high ground. Its visible leaders are seen as political opportunists.
One of the ticket’s rabid supporters who advocated righteousness had to abandon
his sanctimonious facade when a sex video implicating him went viral in the
social media.
Still
another factor is the exposé that Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo
was behind a discredited video that attempted to link President Rodrigo Duterte
and his family to the illegal drug trade in the Philippines. The video was
designed to discredit candidates closely identified with the President, and
underscored that the Otso Diretso and
the LP will resort to anything, even underhanded measures, just to win votes.
Otso Diretso was a partnership of political convenience.
The only common bond the candidates had was their opposition to the Duterte
administration. There was nothing else beyond that. Roxas was an obvious
oligarch; Aquino was political opportunism personified; Erin Tañada symbolized
hollow leadership; Gary Alejano was linked to military mutinies; Jose Manuel
Diokno identified with the left; Romulo Macalintal is money politics; Florin
Hilbay is too close to ex-President Benigno Aquino III; and Samira Gutoc has no
serious political platform.
The
lack of a clear cause among the Otso
Diretso bets led to the group’s disintegration months before election
day. Roxas was the first to unofficially bolt from the coalition, as seen in
his separate campaign sorties as early as March. Aquino and Macalintal
followed. In the end, the Otso
Diretso became the Kwatro Desperado, who eventually learned that
being pitiful is not enough to get elected.
Likewise,
the impending defeat of the Otso
Diretso means the Filipino people are still very pleased with the
way President Duterte is running the government, and with his relentless war
against illegal drugs. It also means that the occasional odd remarks made by
the President in public are non-issues as far as the people are concerned.
The
impending defeat of the Otso
Diretso ticket likewise means that the voters disagree with the
views of anti-Duterte elements like ex-President Noynoy Aquino, Vice President
Robredo and Sen. Francis Pangilinan.
It
is also a slap on the face of outgoing Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who in just
six weeks will morph from a noisy, opinionated troublemaker in the Senate to an
irrelevant has-been who will probably be in hiding for fear of his own shadow.
Otso Diretso’s downfall at the ballot box should also be
enough reason for the pharisees in the Catholic Church, like the double-talking
Luis Cardinal Tagle and his highly politicized bishops Socrates Villegas and
Pablo Virgilio David, to shut up and stop their unfounded criticism of the
President.
It
should also be enough to discourage Sister Patricia Fox, that meddling nun from
Australia who claims to love the Philippines for the past 40 years, but refuses
to get naturalized as a Filipino, from entertaining plans to return to the Philippines
any time soon.
Knowing the kind of shady
individuals behind the Otso Diretso, it is certain
that they will not take defeat that easily, and they will continue to be
critical of the government, despite their repudiation by the people.
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