Déjà vu: 1986 Cory Aquino; 2022 Leni Robredo

By Alex P. Vidal

“You can only predict things after they have happened.” – Eugene Lonesco

IT seems all indications are pointing to history repeating itself in the Philippines.

I’m referring to the presidential election.

There’s a feeling of déjà vu when an unknown housewife with no political background whatsoever, toppled one of the most powerful presidents in Asia in the 1986 snap presidential election on one hand, and when another woman, an incumbent vice president with relatively obscure political ties, is about to create a major stir in the 2022 presidential race on May 9, on another hand.

Against President Marcos, who lifted the Martial Law before the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1981, no one gave Mrs. Aquino a slim chance to defrock the Ilocano strongman, who had called for the snap polls in response to a challenge from a foreign journalist.

Because of its deplorable human rights records, the Philippines needed to be lifted from the doldrums and dark chapter of history, but no seasoned politician or male firebrand opposition leader could mount a challenge and put away the vastly dominant and authoritative Marcos Sr. even in a fair and square tussle.

Out of the blue, Mrs. Aquino entered the picture and totally torched President Marcos’ invincibility, sending him and his family packing to be exiled in Hawaii after the “People Power” intervened in February 1986.

Was it an act of God? A Divine Intervention? It depends on the believers and the non-believers.

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Fast forward in 2022, the Philippines has been smarting from a negative image abroad owing to its horrendous human rights records under the Duterte administration, which had institutionalized the mass murder of suspected drug addicts who “resisted police arrest” and suspected drug pushers who were mostly wearing slippers and basketball shirts.

To compound the matter, President Rodrigo Duterte’s penchant to pick up fights against prominent personalities who did not even have a personal quarrel with him, including cursing the God as “p_tang ina” or SOB, has turned off some of the world political and economic leaders,  snubbing him in international APEC and summit meetings.

At the height of his political power where he employed Machiavellian warfare and iron fist to boot, no gutsy male opposition leader could withstand President Duterte’s ferocity.

Without a doubt, the Philippines needs to be redeemed from the harrowing nightmare just like in the pre-1986 snap election period.

Voila, enter Vice President Leni Robredo, whose dramatic and phenomenal rise since the day she declared her candidacy, is reminiscent of Aung San Suu Kyi’s and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s breathtaking upsurge in their respective political conquests.

Despite the much-vaunted growing survey results dangled by the camp of Bongbong Marcos Jr., projections from experts, independent observers and reputable political analysts, including the reliable and tested Google Trends, show Vice President Robredo could be the Philippines’ third woman president.

Is this an act of God? Is there a Divine Intervention? Again, it depends on the believers and the non-believers.

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If there was social media when housewife Mrs. Aquino tackled strongman Marcos Sr. in the 1986 snap presidential election, Tita Cory would have suffered worst than Robredo, who is up against a wall in Bongbong Marcos Jr. in the May 9 election.

The reason why some people hated Robredo was because of the lies and innuendos spread against her in the social media even before she became vice president six years ago.

They didn’t hate her because she’s crook; she’s been implicated in graft and corruption or for being a mahjong partner of Janet Napoles; for being opulent; or for living an immoral and scandalous life.

They hate her only for being a woman; and, thus, “she doesn’t deserve to be a leader.” That’s how shallow and irrelevant is the “hate” they harbored against the good vice president.

In the eyes of most of those who have been misled and poisoned by TikTok and other “fake news” in the social media, Robredo isn’t the Real McCoy.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)