WHILE the Mayor Tomas Osmena and his Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) won a sweep over opposition Kugi Uswag Sugbo (KUSUG) in Cebu City, this cannot be said of Sen. Noynoy Aquino and the Liberal Party at the national level.
While Noynoy clearly won the election by a comfortable lead, his vice presidential candidate Mar Roxas is fighting for survival against the election dark horse Jejomar Binay.
In the senatorial race, the Liberal Party only managed to get Franklin Drilon, Serge Osmena, and TG Guingona into the winning circle of 12. They will join Sen. Kiko Pangilinan as the new Senate opens more than a month from now. Although no political party enjoys a clear majority at the coming Senate, the Nacionalista Party (NP) of former Senate president has more in numbers compared to the LP, Lakas-Kampi, and the PMP. Drilon and Pangilinan will need to craft a coalition with the other groups to form a majority.
At the Lower House, LP contender for House Speaker Sonny Belmonte also has to forge alliances with the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and raid the membership of the other parties in his bid to counter the threat from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Ensuring support from both Lower House and the Senate means President-elect Noynoy Aquino should play the traditional carrot and stick strategy, that is the use of his control of the release of the pork barrel.
Amidst this situation, Noynoy has also to deal with GMA’s brazen strategy of creating crises for the incoming administration by way of her midnight appointments that included naming Renato Corona as chief justice.
Can Noynoy really stamp out corruption now with these developments? One thing going for him is his mandate and the momentum created by his victory. He should strike out against corruption although we could not say how hard because of the intricacies of the post-election situation.
There’s only one thing I can say now. We are behind you President Noy!
