THE People Power anniversary is here again, and the only change I’ve seen in Pinas’s political arena so far since 1986 is the yellow’s morphing into pink when then Vice President Leni Robredo ran for president against BBM in 2022.
The pink may morph into another color in the 2028 presidential election that will surely have VP Sara Duterte as one of the main contenders since she has already announced she’s running.
My gym friends are also running — in this year’s running races, that is. That’s the better kind of running compared to politics.
The political candidate who joins marathons does have the best of both worlds. The exercise gives him a clear mind and calmness which he can then rely on for his campaign.
I guess the Pinoy got tired of kicking the Marcoses out of Pinas through the 1986 People Power so he welcomed them back in 1991 and even voted for BBM to become PBBM in 2022.
PBBM’s first cousin, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, was also kicked out — not out of Pinas but as Speaker. Er, he wasn’t kicked out. He resigned. There’s a huge difference between the two. The former means by force. The latter means with willingness on his part. Thanks or no thanks — whichever side of the fence you’re in — to the controversial flood control projects, although he remains the Representative of Leyte’s first district.
Romualdez was rumored to be the next president, perhaps to ensure the Marcoses’ forevermore reign over Pinas will last until PBBM’s son, Majority Floor Leader Sandro Marcos, is ready for the presidency.
The younger Marcos is only 31 years old. If he were to run and win in 2028 when he’s 34, he will be the country’s youngest elected president, second only to former President Ramon Magsaysay who was 46 when he took office in 1953.
Gosh. Too many historical years to memorize, eh? But the Pinoy doesn’t have to — there’s Google to help him remember how Pinas evolved from the time Emilio Aguinaldo became the youngest Philippine president at the age of 29 of the First Philippine Republic, to the present time with PBBM as the incumbent president.
I know you’re now confused. Magsaysay was the youngest elected president, and Aguinaldo was the youngest president. Ano ba talaga, Kuya? Okay, here’s the operative word: elected.
The Philippine Revolution during Aguinaldo’s time was confusing. Please excuse my cluelessness since I slept through all history subjects including Philippine History which I used as my time to fiesta, er, to do the siesta. Ho-hum. No, that doesn’t mean history is boring. After all, I took part in the 1986 People Power by guarding Channel 4 against then President Ferdinand Marcos’s military tanks.
History explains why the Pinoy politician has become corrupt, with then President Manuel L. Quezon saying, “I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans.” Was he a fortune teller?
But that quote is incomplete. Here’s the rest of it: “Because, however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it.” As I wrote in the first paragraph, the only change I’ve seen is the yellow morphing into pink.
