In anointing Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas as the Liberal Party standard- bearer in next year’s elections, President Benigno Aquino III stayed true to form and tradition, picking a successor from party ranks.
Twenty five years ago his mother, the late president Corazon Aquino, picked then defense secretary Fidel V. Ramos as her candidate for the presidency even if he lost the nomination of then ruling Lakas ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) party to the late House Speaker Ramon Mitra III.
Six years after, Ramos had to stand by his party’s standard-bearer, Lakas-NUCD’s co-founder and then House Speaker Jose de Venecia despite the overwhelming popularity of his rival, then vice president Joseph Estrada.
More than two decades after, Cory’s son also faced pressure from LP ranks to choose Roxas as the party’s standard-bearer despite the DILG secretary’s poor showing in the surveys compared to his bitter rival Vice President Jejomar Binay and rising star Sen. Grace Poe.
Roxas certainly has a better reputation than de Venecia, who was viewed back then as a traditional politician in the same mold as Vice President Binay. The difference lies in the fact that Binay, who started out as part of Cory’s yellow army, has substantial executive experience while Roxas is being blamed as one of the principal influences for the flip-flopping of the Aquino administration on a number of crises, such as relief work in the Yolanda devastation.
In the latest Mamasapano tragedy, Roxas was kept in the dark about the operation to get Marwan by Aquino’s PNP chief Alan Purisima. This episode appeared to have shown to all the President’s seeming lack of trust in Roxas, who gave way to Mr. Aquino to become the LP standard bearer after seeing him surge in the surveys for presidentiables in 2009.
By anointing Roxas, Aquino is paying him back for making possible his ascension to the presidency. The President also did his best in trying to win Sen. Grace Poe’s commitment to run in tandem with Roxas in 2016.
There’s still plenty of time for that, but for now the President has to campaign hard for his chosen successor in the months leading to the October registration of candidacies and well up to next year.
In the meantime, Roxas can start building up his campaign by presenting himself not just as a successor who will continue Aquino’s governance reform programs but also as a better administrator who can craft and implement economic programs that can enable the country to compete with the best in Southeast Asia.
He has at least one ardent supporter in former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña, who has pledged to mobilize support and deliver votes in the elections.
For now, Roxas, like Binay, Poe and other presidential wannabes, has the burden of selling himself to the voting public – to a masa who sees him as an upper crust, elite politicain – and try to win their trust in 2016.
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