WITHOUT meaning to, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV could be funny.
Take for example his latest declaration that the ruling Liberal Party may no longer draft Senator Grace Poe as the party’s standard-bearer for the vice-presidency in 2016 because she had the gumption to release an “unfavorable” report against President Benigno Aquino III on the Senate probe of the Mamasapano incidet that her committee had investigated.
Summing up her committee report, Poe had said that Aquino was “ultimately responsible” for the Mamasapano carnage that killed 44 commandos of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force, a statement that resonates with the opinions of the vast majority of Filipinos.
But in Trillanes’ yellow-tinted brain, Poe committed a grave offense against the LP, which sources said had been wooing the female senator because she continues to lead the surveys among VP aspirants.
Trillanes’ declaration also boggles the mind, since he himself isn’t a member of the LP, but ran under the banner of Nacionalista Party of former senator Manny Villar.
There is also one fact that Trillanes conveniently sidesteps – that because Poe enjoys a high trust rating among Filipinos, it is the LP that needs her to boost its sagging image, and not the other way around.
But what takes the cake was Trillanes’ follow-up statement that he would run as vice-president in 2016, because “the people are not ready for a Trillanes presidency.”
So let’s see. Trillanes, an NP senator, does not want LP to draft Poe, an independent, as vice-president, but offers himself for the post. Trillanes didn’t elaborate whether he would run as NP’s candidate or under LP’s banner, but lately, the good senator had been consistent in defending Aquino’s honor you’d think he was a “true-yellow” disciple since he decided to enter politics.
Trillanes’ declaration to run as vice-president makes for an interesting story. We don’t know if he’d been reading the surveys, but the latest Pulse Asia polls show that Poe retained her no. 2 position with 14 percent (behind Vice President’s Jejomar Binay’s 29), while Trillanes had a measly two percent – among those perceived to be running for president next year.
In the survery for perceived vice-presidential candidates, Poe has consistently landed on top, while Trillanes’ name was nowhere to be found.
Or maybe Senator Trillanes was aware of the surveys, which may have prompted him to say that “the people are not ready for a Trillanes presidency.”
But following this strange logic, the question that is begging to be asked is this: are the Filipinos ready for a Trillanes vice-presidency? Or do Filipinos like him at all, even now as senator?
Again, we ask Senator Trillanes to re-read the surveys since he seems to need a healthy dose of reality check.
On the other hand, maybe we should perhaps allow the good senator to continue issuing statements such as this. In these hard times, we all need a bit of comic relief to lighten our days.