Leadership can not be measured in a poll or even in the result of an election. It can only be truly seen with the benefit of time. From the perspective of 20 years, not 20 days.
— US Senator Marco Rubio
IF I had my way, I would have wanted my kumpadre, outgoing Senate president Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III, to have won this year’s vice presidential race but he has already accepted the results of the May 9 polls and conceded to presidential daughter, Davao City mayor ‘Inday’ Sara Duterte-Carpio.
In an official statement, Pareng Tito enthused: “The people have made their choice. I accept the will of the People.”
He greets the incoming chief executive: “God speed to our new President and Vice President and I quote from the Holy Book -Joshua 24:15, ‘But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD’.”
He also reacted to the partial and unofficial count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), saying that the electorate “had their minds conditioned elsewhere.”
“Word of honor and loyalty are of far greater importance than an election win. I am glad that I did not yield to any political pressure to change my principles and kept my integrity intact till the end,” he stressed.
My reaction? I guess I could say that with Pareng Tito Sotto’s acceptance of defeat, Filipinos lost ‘the best vice president we could have had’ in a 100 years.
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THERE are concerns about the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) as stocks plummeted amidst the release of the partial and unofficial results of the 2022 national elections showing a runaway victory of the son of the late strongman, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr.
As of today, former senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. is seemingly mounted an insurmountable lead among other presidential aspirants based on the Commission on Elections (Comelec)’s transparency server which started releasing results as early as Monday evening with Marcos Jr. scoring more than 30 million votes whiloe his running mate, Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, also led the vice presidential race with over 31 million votes.
Last March, a Bloomberg.poll of investors and analysts showed that Marcos’ rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, was the market’s preferred candidate to facilitate the country’s economic recovery amid deficits and debt pile with a score of 106 as compared to Marcos Jr., who ranked at the near bottom with 46.
And this morning, the PSEi opened the trading day down 1.89 percent before plummeting by over 3 percent almost an hour later. The broader All Shares index was also in the red.
According to Luis Limlingan of the Manila-based brokerage firm Regina Capital, the election results would be one of the major market drivers in the coming days and he believes that it would also be in focus for (the) majority of the week.
Following this development, some Filipinos immediately aired their concerns over the stock market after seeing it plummet drastically following the release of the elections’ partial and unofficial results.
But before all of these, BBM has promised to address and resolve the problems besetting each Filipino household. He had campaigned with the battlecry for unity and good governance, lets just pray that it would be so—for the sake of our children, our children’s children and their children, too!
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I’M 65 (going 66 by December this year) and for the first time since I first exercised my right to suffrage (way back in 1974), I was able to cast my vote without a tear, a drop of perspiration and anxiety.
Really . . .
In past elections, I had to queue and lose my weight, waiting for my turn to get inside the poll precinct and grab my ballot so I could write down the names of the candidates I like or chose to get elected.
Thanks to the pandemic that triggered strict health safety protocols, a law that prioritizes senior citizens and PWDs (persons with disabilities) along side my good natured smile, I was able to finish voting in a flat ten-minute spurt.
So let me laud the teachers who manned the polling sites, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) which I believe did an awesomely good job and our barangay officials who marshalled the conduct of the polls.
To the victors, let me congratulate you guys; and to the losers, better luck next elections!
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(Photo courtesy: Wall Street Journal)
