Thursday, May 19, 2022
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Columns

Who will stop BBM?

Tony LopezbyTony Lopez
January 19, 2022, 12:05 am
in Columns, Opinion, Virtual Reality by Tony Lopez
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
213
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

“He just might be a majority president.”

If you believe surveys (I do), the next president of the Philippines will be former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., 64.

All the major and most recent surveys show an overwhelming and landslide victory by the son of the longest-serving and most vilified Philippine president, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, chief executive from Dec. 30,1965 to Feb. 25, 1986, a total of 20 years, 14 of them under martial law or one-man rule that gave the elder Marcos his strongman gravitas.

Bongbong Marcos got 47 percent of the vote in the SWS survey of October 2021, 58 percent in the Laylo poll of Nov. 22-29, 2021, 53 percent in the Pulse Asia survey of Dec. 1-6, 54 percent in OCTA Research of Dec. 7-12, 2021, and 62 percent in the private poll of 3,600 respondents (one the largest) done by a Swiss consultant for the Marcos campaign.

Leni Robredo did 18 percent in SWS, 13 percent in Laylo, 20 percent in Pulse Asia, 14 percent in OCTA, and 15 percent in Swiss. She is going up and down in surveys, indicating a lack of solid base, if not a declining base of support.

Probably, nearing May 9, 2022 or by April 2022, VP Leni will end up a poor third to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. The other candidates, Manny Pacquiao and Ping Lacson, are stagnating in single digits.

ADVERTISEMENT

Bongbong’s victory, if allowed by fate, the Comelec and its machines, and of course, by people power, will be a stunning turn of events for a country that has been imprisoned for the last half century in the Prism (in Jedi terms) of a family rivalry between the Marcoses and the Cojuangco-Aquino clan of slain Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr..

Ninoy’s assassination, blamed on Marcos (rather unfairly,), triggered two presidencies for the Aquino family—six years and four months under his widow Corazon Cojuangco Aquino (Feb. 25, 1986-June 30,1992) and six years under their only son, Benigno Simeon (BS) Cojuangco Aquino III, June 30, 2010-June 30, 2016.

Cory’s stint was marked by nine coup attempts, the worst volcanic eruption of the century, the worst earthquake of the century, the worst sea accident, and massive floods. The communist New People’s Army rose to its mightiest, with 35,000 regular guerillas. The separatist movement, somehow muddled into a stalemate by Marcos, was revived with Nur Misuari having a summit with Cory in the MNLF territory in Jolo, Sulu, Mindanao, in1986, with the president of the Philippines surrounded by fully armed Muslim separatists. I covered the event and we newsmen went through at least three checkpoints manned by the guerillas. The presidential party passed through the same checkpoints.

Noynoy Aquino’s presidency was marked, among other things, by the Mamasapano massacre and the Yolanda disaster. In both, he was out of his wits and mostly detached.

There is very little difference between a democratic rule and a dictatorship or ruthless rule.

Marcos’s 20-year reign, the longest, averaged 3.83 percent in economic growth (as measured by GDP growth per year). Cory’s so-called democratic rule averaged 3.86 percent in six years and four months, with her last year in recession and the economy down by 0.578 percent.

Also a democrat, Noynoy in six years produced 6.25 percent GDP growth. That is not much better than the 6.63 percent average of supposedly tyrannical Rodrigo Duterte in his first four years in office, pre-pandemic.

If democracy and autocracy produce the same results, why should BBM’s critics then worry about his impending presidency? Why does Business hate Marcos Jr.? And why do people, from the lowest income class to the highest, want him as their president?

“We are on track to seeing our first post-EDSA majority president. Marcos enjoys a lead that is very difficult to dismantle – especially as the same surveys show a high voter commitment among his voters,” writes political scientist Alex Magno in his column Jan. 18, 2021 in the Philippine Star.

Four reasons for Bongbong’s popularity: one, people identify him with President Duterte who still enjoys high approval rating (77 percent among voters) and who has not been a bad president after all; two, Bongbong is the best person to carry on the good in the Duterte presidency; three, people appreciate the late strongman Marcos in a much better light today. Marcos’s favorability rating is up at 72 percent, from 65 percent in April 2021, and 55 percent in April 2016. And four, Bongbong has his own endearing qualities.

Meanwhile, the three-person Comelec Second Division this week dismissed by a unanimous vote the petition to cancel the CoC of Bongbong Marcos.

The suit, filed by a group of Marcos critics represented by former Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te, wanted to stop Marcos Jr. from running for president.

The Comelec panel scolded the petitioners for attempting to mislead the poll body with misrepresentations of facts and wrong quotations of certain provisions of the law.

“Petitioners shamelessly cited a certain provision denominated as Section 254 of the 1977 NIRC which they alleged such provision punishes those who fail to file an ITR fine of not less than P10,000 ‘AND’ imprisonment. However, a careful reading of the actual Section 254 of the 1977 NIRC shows that it refers to rentals and royalties and mineral lands under lease,” read a portion of the Second Division’s ruling penned by Second Division penned by Presiding Commissioner Socorro B. Inting.

The misrepresentation made by the petitioners on Section 254 of the NIRC to make it appear that imprisonment is mandatory punishment “reeks of deliberate intent to deceive or mislead the Commission,” another portion of the ruling read.

Commissioners Antonio T. Kho, Jr. and Rey E. Bulay concurred with the ruling, which lamented what it called an “obvious clutching at straws,” or a desperate attempt, by the petitioners to convince the poll body to cancel the CoC of Marcos, Jr.

“It somehow becomes ironic when we realize the thought that herein Petitioners accuse Respondent Marcos of misrepresentation while they themselves are guilty of supposed misrepresentations in this very same proceeding,” the decision said.

biznewsasia@gmail.com

Tags: BBMFerdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.OCTA ResearchSWS survey
ADVERTISEMENT
Tony Lopez

Tony Lopez

Related Posts

Alter-egos

byManila Standard
May 19, 2022, 12:15 am
0
131
Alter-egos

No matter how an incoming leader claims to be ready for the daunting job he faces, and how he insists...

Read more

National unity cannot be reaped if not sown

byRudy Romero
May 19, 2022, 12:10 am
0
133
Disaggregating the 2022 youth vote

"Let’s go back to the Bible." The Bible teaches Christians that one reaps what one sows. This piece of biblical...

Read more

Starting things the right way

byFlorencio Fianza
May 19, 2022, 12:05 am
0
138
Money matters

"A healthy democracy needs a genuine opposition." When it became apparent that a massive victory was at hand, BBM issued...

Read more

Extreme temperatures compound poverty in Pakistan’s hottest city

byAFP
May 19, 2022, 12:00 am
0
135
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

"Residents face desperate dilemmas." By Emma Clark and Ashraf Khan By the time Pakistani schoolboy Saeed Ali arrived at hospital...

Read more

The sin of low wages

byManila Standard
May 18, 2022, 12:15 am
0
211
The sin of low wages

This week’s announcement of a paltry P33 increase in the minimum wage in Metro Manila confirmed what we gathered from...

Read more

The 6Gs of PH elections

byErnesto M. Hilario
May 18, 2022, 12:10 am
0
401
Denying Villafuerte justice

"Guns, goons, gold, glitter, guile, greed" If politics is defined as the art of expanding the limits of the possible,...

Read more

Stories you may like

  • Ex-Naga dad links Leni’s brother-in-law to illegal drugs

    Ex-Naga dad links Leni’s brother-in-law to illegal drugs

    35801 shares
    Share 14320 Tweet 8950
  • Of course, it was BBM’s project

    30203 shares
    Share 12081 Tweet 7551
  • INC endorses BBM, Sara

    28661 shares
    Share 11464 Tweet 7165
  • Duterte’s seven biggest achievements

    18000 shares
    Share 7200 Tweet 4500
  • Marcos leads SWS survey on presidentiables at 50%

    13537 shares
    Share 5415 Tweet 3384

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • PH in for a food crisis—Dar
  • Marcos talks to Xi, sees ‘fruitful’ PH-China relations
  • Finally, winning senatorial bets get proclaimed
  • GMA pushes Romualdez’ bid for Speaker with full support
  • DOH okays 2nd booster for elderly, frontliners
  • PH keeps 3rd spot with 3-gold haul
  • It’s official: Wet season begins
  • Biz groups push for economic bills

Advertisement

Latest News

PH keeps 3rd spot with 3-gold haul

byRiera U. Mallari
May 19, 2022, 1:00 am
0
138
PH keeps 3rd spot with 3-gold haul

Hanoi—Fil-American Kayla Richardson was crowned the fastest woman of the 31st Southeast Asian Games on another slow day for the...

Read more

It’s official: Wet season begins

byManila Standard
May 19, 2022, 12:50 am
0
131
200m jabs seen before yearend; 433 new COVID cases, tally rising

The six-month wet season in this Southeast Asian republic has begun, the state weather agency said Wednesday. Using temperature and...

Read more

Biz groups push for economic bills

byOthel V. Camposand1 others
May 19, 2022, 12:40 am
0
135
Vax wastage, infection surge feared in Odette-hit areas

Seven business groups and six foreign chambers called on the House and Senate to pass the remaining priority economic reform...

Read more

Marcos camp urges critics to end animosity

byRey E. Requejoand2 others
May 19, 2022, 12:30 am
0
137
Musk buys Twitter, vows to let users fight trolls, disinformation

The camp of presumptive President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday again urged petitioners in two disqualification cases filed against...

Read more

Ex-Maguindanao solon Jimmy Matalam dies, 84

byNash B. Maulana
May 19, 2022, 12:20 am
0
133
Vax wastage, infection surge feared in Odette-hit areas

Cotabato City—Former Maguindanao lawmaker Datu Guimid “Jimmy” Matalam died early morning on Tuesday, an immediate member of his family said....

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App