During the last leg of the campaign, Noynoy’s celebrity sister was able to broaden the appeal of Noynoy among the poor by joining the campaign sorties of the Liberal Party. Noynoy also bombarded the public with TV infomercials (a move that contradicted earlier Liberal Party claims that Noynoy didn’t have the resources to match the deep war chest of his billionaire rival). After securing the official endorsement of an influential church group last April, Noynoy’s victory seemed assured.
And so it apparently was, according to exit polls and unofficial canvassing tallies. The poll body’s unfinished official count showed Noynoy leading by more than 5 million votes over his closest rival, meaning that even claims of irregularities would be unlikely to tarnish Noynoy’s win. Indeed, Noynoy’s lead is one of the biggest in the country’s election history.
But this landslide victory has been overshadowed somewhat by Noynoy’s failure to completely vanquish the party of the incumbent president. Not only has President Arroyo succeeded in her unprecedented bid to clinch a Congress seat, her party remains the biggest political bloc in the lower house.
Arroyo has the numbers for the speakership, and even if she fails in her bid to become speaker of the House of Representatives her party remains a formidable threat to Noynoy’s new government (Arroyo could use the Congress’s impeachment powers to win concessions from the executive branch).
And should Arroyo become speaker of the lower house, she could ‘command’ members loyal to her to pass a resolution that would empower Congress to amend the Constitution and adopt a parliamentary form of government. Lakas-Kampi Party members, including Arroyo, have been advocating this change for more than a decade.
The only impediment to such a plan in the past has been the recalcitrant opposition of the senate. But today, Noynoy doesn’t have enough senate members to dictate the chamber’s leadership, meaning an anti-Noynoy leadership could end up controlling the senate and working with a pro-Arroyo lower house to undermine the new government. If this happens, and the Constitution is amended, the next national elections might be to select the country’s members of parliament for a parliamentary system of government.
As the new leader of an impoverished nation of more than 90 million people, Noynoy is faced with a daunting task. He has to turn around the economy, restore public confidence in government and unite a deeply divided nation. But with a soon-to-be former president having decided to postpone her retirement from politics, Noynoy’s attention might, sadly for the Philippines, be divided into two: fulfilling his promises to the nation while trying to protect his presidency from those who want to steal it.
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kirsty
“Hacienda Luisita… the second-biggest family-owned plantation in the country”
what’s the first largest?
Paparay
Mong, great writeup and analysis of the recent election. I think, unfortunately, you are correct that too much time and effort will be wasted with in-fighting to allow real progress to be made for Filipinos. This country needs strategic vision and rolling up of sleeves and good old fashion elbow grease! Time for the Pols to stop playing games of ego and pay attention to the lives of 90 million people. But the bottom line is it needs to be Filipinos who drive the direction and not outsiders who own all the major banks and businesses and pull the strings. The Pols are just creating chaos and confusion to distract while other “business” goes on as usual, as intended by those really pulling the strings.