Look out PNoy, Mar will win in 2016, thanks to you.

 

IT’S IRONIC that Mar Roxas’ only real chance in hell in clinching the presidency in the 2016 elections is to spit in President Benigno S. Aquino III’s face and call Daang Matuwid a sham. These are the real things keeping him at the bottom of the barrel, and no amount of hemming, hawing and clawing will get him on the top of the pile. Well, many of his original Balay people still feel that PNoy was a traitor when he played them against the Noy-Bi campaign of the Samar faction.

Yes, he can keep that Daang Matuwid dream alive. But instead of saying that he will continue with PNoy’s version of the straight and narrow, Mar must openly declare that he will finally get it started. But that’s too much of a dream. And definitely, his benefactor, PNoy, will have none of that.

Mar coming out of PNoy’s shadow? He wishes. Photo from manilacoconuts site.

Be that as it may, PNoy is moving heaven and earth to ensure a Mar win, simply because after his term he would have lost all political cover. He has made so many political enemies during his term – abandoning even those that he called his friends – and is unsure of the loyalty of those he has kept close when he reaches his political afterlife.

Why, he’s even unsure if he’ll be able to retire in Hacienda Luisita, given the Left is waiting at the gates demanding blood, and his own Uncle Peping and Aunt Tingting are waiting inside to do God knows what.

Times Street in Quezon City? It all bets are off. Just take a close look at Speaker Sonny Belmonte and the rest of the guys in his territory.

Maybe he’ll move to the U.S. with Kris. He gets along really well with Josh, anyway.

But PNoy knows that there is a great possibility that he won’t be able to get a night’s sleep after his term. He’s going to feel like he landed right in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

And that’s why he desperately needs a Mar win. Mar will be beholden to PNoy for his efforts in making him win and will thus provide the political cover at least for the next six years.

The game plan is simple, really. Kill the opposition. No, not literally end their lives. Just make sure that the competition disappears.

The two top contenders are Grace Poe and Jojo Binay. So, disqualify Grace Poe and put Binay in jail. To set the ground work create some situations that will make the Mar win credible. First, man the institutions with people you can trust: Supreme Court Justices mostly appointed by PNoy, Senators under PNoy’s thumb, appointees in Commission on Elections (COMELEC), a series of positive actions from the Ombudsman and Commission on Audit… those sorts of things.

Then Grace Poe wins at the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) on a purely political decision but, shortly before elections, will be disqualified at the COMELEC and this upheld by the SC. Why do you think Bam Aquino voted against the SC justices in the disqualification?

The Ombudsman will file the ultimate graft case against Jojo Binay and, if necessary, his family which, again, will be upheld by the SC.

To avoid criticism that the elections are rigged, the candidacies of Rody Duterte and Miriam Santiago will be made as noisy as possible, like they have a chance to win. They will not, however, stand a rat’s ass against the Mar campaign. The COMELEC, with its PCOS machines, will make sure of any lose ends.

Thus, Mar will win, shake Duterte’s and Miriam’s hands, and Daang Matuwid goes on. Somebody quietly retires in Davao, the other in Quezon City.

But what PNoy has not considered is that, as history has shown, Mar has had a penchant for betraying his past presidential bosses – FVR, Erap, GMA – that maybe, just maybe, Mar will turn around and crack down on PNoy as soon as he wins, all in the name of Daang Matuwid.

Well, perhaps not quite the pipe dream like that. But certainly Mar will do it for his own political survival if and when it becomes necessary. Mar heavily hinted on this necessity in his acceptance speech of the Liberal Party’s nomination at the Club Filipino. He tearfully recounted how he had to abandon his private life as a investment banker to take over his deceased brother in Congress.

If you look at the Araneta family history you will see centuries of protecting the family wealth and holdings through political cover – from the moment their ancestor was appointed encomiendero by the King of Spain over tracts of land father than the eye can see, through the country’s various historical and political phases with councilmen, senators, congressmen etc. Ancestors held office in the Commonwealth, through the collaborators during the Japanese occupation, through the turbulent times of the ‘60s, 70s and 80s… always a guy in office, always with the political cover to protect the family wealth.

So, during the Mar Roxas presidency, when protecting the Cojuangco-Aquino legacy becomes a political liability who will Mar protect: his family or PNoy?