Keeping an eye on Sara

By Alex P. Vidal

“Don’t tell me what you believe in. I’ll observe how you behave, and I will make my own determination.” – Alex Trebek

WE will continue to keep an eye on 43-year-old Sara Duterte-Carpio, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte and mayor of Davao City, until November 15, the deadline for substitution of candidates in the May 9, 2022 Philippine elections.

There’s still an impending national paranoia that she will spring back to prominence and change her plans on or before the much-anticipated November 15 deadline.

The burden of proof, of course, falls on the presidential daughter’s shoulders to belie this mystery since she is the one involved in this long-drawn brouhaha.

We will know if, like what her father did in 2016, she will substitute for Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa or Bong Go, who are both “running” for president and vice president, respectively, under the PDP-Laban (Cusi wing) in the eleventh hour.

We will know with absolute finality if she was only faking an orgasm or taking us all for a joy ride.

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Mayor Carpio has repeatedly announced she wasn’t interested to run for any national post and was hell-bent to pursue her reelection bid.

As of now, her credibility is still intact, especially when she nixed the calls from her rabid supporters to “run Sara run” (for president) and firmly faced the TV camera to elucidate her decision.

We would salute her if she really meant what she had said.

It’s another story if she will suddenly become a drama queen and grab the jersey for a presidential or vice-presidential run “because of insistent public demand” or whatever Famas-award-winning soliloquy.

We believe that a legitimate, sincere, independent, morally upright candidate for president, vice president, or any other position, shouldn’t hide his or her true intentions to the public.

A man or woman of words is a trustworthy and credible leader.

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A true leader shouldn’t wait for the dictate or final decision of his or her father or mother. The candidate must decide for himself or herself.

The parents have nothing to do with the candidate’s political plans, if the candidate claims to be an independent and competent elective official.

A true leader should tell the people from the very beginning that he or she intends to serve them and is seeking their votes for a certain position during the filing of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) in the Commission on Elections (Comelec), set on October 1-8, 2021 or a month ago.

People won’t be impressed if a candidate, however brilliant and grizzled, is only at the beck and call of someone who wields tremendous power over him or her, and all the candidate’s decisions will emanate from that Godzilla.

A candidate must be transparent, down-to-earth, straightforward right from the very beginning and isn’t hiding a political black magic.

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AS I’ve mentioned in my recent article, the next mayor of New York City was already “pre-determined” even before the election day.

The election on November 2 of Democrat Eric Adams, a former New York Police Department captain, as the Big Apple’s second Black Mayor, was already expected owing to the fact that New York City is a “democratic territory” or majority of the voters are registered as democrats.

Adams won in a landslide election that offered little surprise given that Republicans are outnumbered by a margin of about 7 to 1.

Currently, the Brooklyn borough president and a former state senator, Adams, 61, will take the reins from outgoing mayor Bill de Blasio, whose second term was mired in the effects of the pandemic, historic job losses, skyrocketing housing prices and rental rates, extreme income inequality, and a broke transportation system.

We congratulate, Mayor-elect Eric Adams.

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