Can we be certain of our senatorial elections?

Can we be certain of our senatorial elections?

A total of 152 people would have deposited their candidacy certificate for the senatorial elections of May 14, 2019. And 185 for the system of party list.

Even the former senator, 94-year-old Juan Ponce Enrile, has applied, not planning a stressful campaign, but instead using social media to reach voters. Former Senator Jinggoy Estrada made the request after his half-brother, Senator J.V. Ejercito; The same is true of former Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., who was inside his Crame Camp detention cell. Enrile, Estrada and Revilla were charged and arrested by the Aquino administration for their alleged misuse of the "pork barrel", but Enrile and Estrada were allowed to be paid on bail.

A happy mix
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque also testified after discovering the flaws in President Duterte's character and announcing that he was running as a representative of Luntiang Pilipinas' party list. It will be a happy mix of characters.

But does that mean that senatorial elections will be held, without any attempt to preempt or disrupt them? For the most fatal reasons, some remain skeptical, despite all the assurances of the government. They do not see the Communists unleashing a bomb to disrupt the campaign or the elections themselves; ironically, they are watching DU30.

In violation of the presidential protocol, all known official standards and the specific rule of the Elections Committee that a person filing his CoC can only be accompanied by up to four people, DU30 has led a whole barangay to accompany Christopher Lawrence , special assistant to the presidency. Bong "Go drop off your CdC before the commission. They apparently wanted to make sure he knew where to sign his name.

"Unique egalitarian"
Comelec justified this violation of its own rule by saying that certain personalities deserved special treatment; in our "only egalitarian" system, some are more equal than others. Comelec apparently decided that Bong Go had the right to make a show of force in order to avoid any impression that too few people support him. But the focus is now on DU30 rather than on its factotum.

What signal did the DU30 try to send to everyone? Analysts are divided on their interpretation. Some analysts believe that he wanted to show that Bong Go was an asset to the Senate because of his personal support. Except that, we do not have an unblemished record of electing even our most illustrious members of the Cabinet in the Senate. And Bong Go falls just in this category.

In recent months, Bong Go has saturated the country with his ubiquitous ugly jab, making it the most widely advertised mug, even before he becomes a senatorial candidate. Yet many people may have come to see him as the "endorser" of a commercial product, even if they can not identify his product. Some people recognize Senator Ping Lacson as the endorser of a strong drink brand, but what is the equivalent of Bong Go?

Bong Go or Arthur Yap?
More than that, in Bohol and neighboring provinces, many tend to confuse Bong Go with outgoing and governor candidate, Arthur Yap. Aside from their dentures, they look strangely like look-alikes. But the similarity may work for Bong Go rather than for Arthur Yap, so analysts may be right after all: Go could be a kid's game for the Senate, with the approval of DU30 and the blessing of Smartmatic.

However, other analysts quickly added, "provided that the elections go as planned, and that they are neither pre-empted nor disrupted," which shows great fear that they may be pre-empted or disrupted.

It's probably all paranoia. But they see the needless presence of DU30 at Bong Go's depot, an attempt to build a flawless alibi – in case the elections would self-destruct, as feared by less optimistic analysts and observers. After going to the Bong Go depot, at the cost of a correct presidential protocol and common sense, he could say that he was so anxious to see the elections go by and that his factotum took its place. place of honor as a senator of the kingdom, except that certain events occurred.

The real plot of October
Although the military claims to have sabotaged the so-called October red conspiracy to overthrow the president, qualified sources of intelligence insist that the threat of a "revolutionary government" of DU30's It has never been lifted and may even have increased after the announced dismantling of the "red government". October "threat." The threat of October remains, but it is no longer red, according to these sources.For them, the threat is a deep family secret and, apart from DU30, his daughter, the mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is the main guardian.

According to their analysis, what makes the game lose to DU30 is the sudden and unexplained decision of Inday Sara to abandon her announced plan to stand in the Senate and be re-elected mayor. She is certainly more qualified and more eligible than Bong Go and most of the 152 people who have applied. And she had already launched her regional campaign Hugpong ng Pagbabago, which seeks to join the PDP-Laban, the adoptive party of DU30, to present Senate candidates and prepare her for the succession of her father at the end of his term , in 2022. All that is gone damn. Why?

Would Sara have given up the prospect of sitting in the Senate if she saw no risk of senatorial elections being sabotaged or vaporized? In fact, in addition to accompanying Bong Go to Comelec, DU30 did nothing to choose its own Senate candidates, as Aquino chose its nominees in 2013 to make the Senate a powerful executive partner.

The army replaces the reds?
Analysts suspect that before the DU30, which was trying to create a revolutionary government with the PCP / NPA / NDF or with the Communists of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., it could now try to regroup a revolutionary government with elements chosen from the armed forces, whose fidelity to his person he was able to gain through his policy of material reward and personal incitement.

A revolutionary military government can be no less dangerous than a communist government. But DU30 seems to be moving from one option to another in search of power beyond what the Constitution provides and what the sovereign people are willing to see exercised by the President. I hope that all these speculations only concern birds, but what will happen if this is not the case?

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