Son of Rambo

Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s term doesn’t end until 2016. And yet, the vice president, Jojo Binay, has already been campaigning for the top office.
Binay was a surprise winner in the 2010 elections, He came from nowhere to beat Mr. Aquino’s running mate, former senator Mar Roxas, scion of an elite family. Today, Binay and his people are busy keeping him in the spotlight.
In the 2010 campaign, Roxas had thought he was already a shoo-in, he forgot to consolidate his big lead in the surveys. He was so complacent; he even teased the candidates to go fight over the first slot because the second spot was already in the bag.
Alas and alack, Binay emerged the winner in a close decision. Roxas contested the official result and his protest is still pending to this day at the presidential electoral tribunal. This protest has been touted as a factor in many of Mr. Aquino’s political moves, including the impeachment and removal of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. The chief justice presides over the electoral tribunal, and Corona, being an ally of former President Gloria Arroyo, was seen as an obstacle to a successful (for Roxas) resolution of the election protest. Complicated? Indeed.
Roxas may run for president in 2016 and, therefore, which way his current protest is resolved would have a weighty bearing on his 2016 candidacy. An incumbent vice president would have an edge over other candidates.
An advantage currently enjoyed by Binay. An official who is in office has more resources, more visibility and, let’s face it, more power than an outsider. Obvious, n’est-ce pas? That’s why, some observers have noted, Corona had to be taken out of the equation, in order to get a favorable (for Roxas) decision on the vice presidential election protest. So Roxas can sit as vice president.
With nothing much to do in terms of day-to-day business as a spare tire for the president, Binay has been free to practically do anything he wants. Mainly to keep himself in the limelight, to maintain his public visibility.
Backed up by an active communications team, Binay has managed to stay in the public eye, looking after the welfare of Filipino workers abroad, managing the state fund for low-cost housing, etc. His approval rating is way up, higher than that of President Aquino. That can be explained by the fact that Binay, being an “inactive” official, doesn’t have to put out so many fires as the President has had to do.
Jojo Binay is a small man with dark complexion. A lawyer, he barged into the public limelight when he conscripted himself into the service of President Cory Aquino (Benigno’s mother) when Mrs. Aquino was being besieged by coup plotters during her term in the 1980s. Binay, armed with automatic weapon, openly declared war on those who threatened Mrs. Aquino’s shaky hold on power.
Binay’s pugnacity and willingness to mix it up with other toughies earned him the nickname “Rambotito” or Little Rambo. Later, when his yearnings for the presidency became known, he was branded as “Jojobama,” because of his dark skin.
As of now, Binay is seen as the guy to beat in 2016. His come-from-nowhere victory in 2010 astonished every observer, even astute pundits who’d been around the block many times.
People close to Binay exude the confidence of having a sure-winner. And they’re working full-time to preserve the aura. He works hard on projecting the image of a calm and cool politico, modulating his voice almost to a whisper in order to sound in control and unruffled. He styles himself as a politician who’s concerned about the welfare of the masses. He’s doing all the “right” things.
Will Binay be the next President of the Philippines? It’s very possible but it’s not a given.
Surely, Binay, originally a non-member of the elite, would embody the egalitarian dream of discerning Filipinos to dismantle the elite’s stranglehold on political and economic power in the country. The elite here, as in many other struggling nations, have controlled practically everything that’s of value. Its members take turns holding the reins of power. And when idealistic politicians manage to break into the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful, they soon succumb to the taste of power and make themselves adopted members of the elite and forget about their idealistic past and modest beginnings.
Binay would represent a breakthrough.
But, if an assessment of him is to be impartial, Binay has also been at the receiving end of talk that he enriched himself when he was the mayor of Makati City, the Manila metropolis’s trailblazer in urban modernization and fashion tastes and trends. He is said to have imposed financial or material cuts on all economic and commercial activity in the city which he ruled for many years and is now governed by his son (a daughter is a member of Congress).
In other words, the Binay who guarded Cory Aquino from power usurpers has reportedly become just another “trapo” in the colloquial here, a clever contraction for the pejorative phrase “traditional politician,” a euphemism for corrupt officials.
That would be the blot in Binay’s record. He and his handlers will have to white-out this entry in his resume when he goes out selling himself to be the next president.
Will he be successful?
That will depend not only on whether he and his men succeed in erasing his “bad” record, but also on whether the other presidential candidates, especially Roxas, can sell themselves as better qualified and deserving to occupy the seat that President Aquino will vacate in 2016.
The political community here is already agog over the local elections (including and especially for senator) next year. Binay is already busy putting together a senatorial lineup in partnership with deposed President Joseph Estrada and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Next year’s senatorial election is being seen as a referendum on the power of President Aquino, who will be fielding his own candidates, to be pitted against those of Binay, as well as those from other parties or political coalitions.
How many of Aquino’s and Binay’s bet will win will be an indicator of who will be ruling the next political cycle here.