BY JULLIE Y. DAZA
Months before the pandemic shut down our social lives, the loudest whisper was about politics and not your usual society scandal. Whispered or rumored, the talk was to the effect that THE tandem for 2022 was already in the works.
The names being dropped were not those of Marcos, Pacquiao, Villar, Lacson, or Sotto. Another name, not two, was mentioned for the two positions of president and vice president: Duterte.
Then, the lockdown pushed the elections out of the framework of our daily lives. Battered by COVID-19 and a garland of typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic smoke and ash, fires every other day, PhilHealth’s thieves, etc., the talk turned less than idle and faded out. But those who had heard it from “insider sources” could not forget how deeply they had been intrigued. Who was the source of the fairy tale? Whoever it was, he/she/they knew their Constitution. A president may not run for reelection but nothing’s to stop him from seeking the VP post.
Wild? Out of the box? Hey, this is the Philippines. As it happened, probably because PRRD felt he had to squelch the rumors, he was seen and heard advising Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio to stay out of national politics. The presidency, he told her, is a thankless, cruel job.
And that was that.
Days into Christmas and still in the midst of a pandemic, the whisper that had once died for lack of legs has suddenly acquired a life of its own. On no less than the government channel, no less than the President’s first buddy, Senator Bong Go, declared that he saw nothing wrong in a Duterte-Duterte team-up. That was his reply – who was he reacting to? The newscast didn’t say.
When I repeated Senator Go’s comment to a group of friends, they were uncharacteristically expressionless and did not add morsels of information of their own. The only response was: “Isn’t Bong Go himself eyeing 2020?”
Sure, they’ve all heard about the senator’s Malasakit Centers (“100 and counting”), his daily commentaries in print and broadcast media, Balik-Probinsiya, his help to fire victims (in PRRD’s words, “Bong is there even before the firemen arrive”). Would Bong Go be the brains behind the Duterte-Duterte duet? Nah, would he?