BBM’s PET recount, De Lima, and Bong Go

Lopez

Many of my Facebook friends and followers regularly ask me about Bongbong Marcos’s electoral protest against Leni Robredo and guess what, the results from the ongoing Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) recount are promising, thus far. Never mind dilatory tactics from Leni Robredo’s camp.

As it is, Leni has already lost 5,000 votes with the recount covering 210 precincts in Camarines Sur.

And that’s just the first 210 precincts out of 5,418 total clustered precincts in the first three provinces identified by BBM’s camp (that’s CamSur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental).

Results of the manual recount and revision of ballots in these three identified provinces would be used as basis by the PET on whether or not to proceed with BBM’s protest that covers a total of 132,446 precincts in 27 cities and provinces.

Imagine that, we’re still on the first 210 of 132,446 precincts and Leni Robredo has already lost 5,000 votes.

At the rate the recount is going, her measly 263,473 vote margin can actually be wiped out leaving Bongbong Marcos as the rightful, duly elected Vice President of the Philippines. Exciting!

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The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, declared as unconstitutional the watchlist order detained Senator and former Justice Secretary Leila De Lima issued against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, former First Gentleman, Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo in 2011.

“The Court voting unanimously declared Department of Justice (DOJ) Department Circular No. 41 as unconstitutional for being violative of the right to travel under Article III, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution,” SC Spokesman Theodore Te said during a news conference.

Now my question is, shouldn’t De Lima be punished for her brazen defiance of the Supreme Court then, for defiling Arroyo’s basic human right to travel and seek the best medical attention wherever?

There has to be some punishment here, not just a slap on the wrist. Disbarment, at least or for starters, perhaps?

At any rate, this only confirms even more how the previous government operated with such blatant disregard for due process, fueled by vendetta and vindictiveness, and was itself a vicious violator of rights.

And now Yellow supporters have the temerity to resort to human rights sloganeering, to mouth platitudes on due process and following the rule of law, the courts of law? You people are out of your minds inconsistent!

Where were you then? Perhaps if you had been consistently fair and just and spoken up against government’s abuse then, we would have had no need for someone like Duterte whom you cannot stomach.

So if you now suffer having for president someone you completely detest, remember it’s all because of you and your support for Yellow hypocrisy, hysterics, and holier-than-thou persecution politics. Merese!

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I was with my student leader friends early this week and a few of them, perhaps noticing my posts on Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Secretary Christopher “Bong” Go, asked why I’m so convinced that he should run for senator and that if he’d win that he’d make a great senator.

It’s a fair question to ask since I really have been very transparent about my support for him, even during that ridiculous senate hearing on the frigate deal where he wowed most everyone in the session hall as soon as he opened his mouth.

Also, I expect student leaders, especially those from the

TINGOG! Carolinian Party of the University of San Carlos, to be more discerning, to press further, and not just take my word for it.

Some of my reasons why I am all for his prospective candidacy (if he should decide) are as follows:

1) He has been trained and mentored by no less than a President of the Republic, one I trust and believe in, imbibing in him important non-negotiable values such as integrity and love of country (not the misplaced kind of patriotism that is too idealistic and impractical and would not be beneficial, or worse, even be prejudicial to our countrymen).

2) Though coming from a very good and well-to-do family, he has had the humility to work behind the scenes as executive assistant to the mayor of Davao throughout over twenty years (a period that saw Davao’s most dramatic transformation).

Whatever fame and popularity he has now are things he did not actively seek, these are all by sheer accident, providential, a matter of destiny.

This humility coupled with passion and dedication to service and an abiding loyalty to someone he believes in, these are qualities not just worth emulating but are actually markers for greatness, for leaders worth their salt.

3) I personally saw how then Mayor Duterte trusted SAP Bong with practically everything, not just running his office but in executing his vision.

He would even consult him on sensitive issues.

Obviously you’d have to be extremely intelligent and provide expert insight for a master tactician to trust your judgement, noh?

And those who still question PRRD’s political savvy better check on how their respective candidates are doing now — yes, two years after a probinsyano with practically no money and national machinery outplayed and outsmarted them.

4) Having been by the President’s side every step of the way — from Davao to the world — has put SAP Bong in a most unique position to appreciate governance from the perspective of the chief executive and (beginning 2016) commander-in-chief, to hear his thoughts on the scope and limitations of the job as well as the issues that confront our country and its people, and so this is what he will bring to the table when he becomes senator, insight like no other, solutions that he and the President have thought of but cannot yet execute because these require new legislation.