No city for old men
Credit to Author: MARLEN V. RONQUILLO| Date: Sat, 18 May 2019 16:21:22 +0000
IF there was one politician who never lost an election before 2019, on any turf and under any political environment, that was Erap Estrada.
He slayed the ruling political clan in his first San Juan mayoralty race, then presided over the city like it were his own. In the 1987 senatorial election, the euphoria of the democratic restoration failed to rein in the national appeal of the action hero-turned mayor. Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile were the only two survivors of the administration sweep of the senatorial elections that year. Even the peak of Mrs. Aquino’s popularity couldn’t dim the national appeal of Erap Estrada.
Juan Ponce Enrile’s win was a result of hard work, massive resources and strategic campaigning. Erap Estrada’s convincing victory belonged to the natural order of political things. He spent almost nothing and did very little campaigning.
At the senate, he fiscalized with biting, but trivial, one liners that his countless admirers compiled as “Eraptions” — or the supposed displays of his native genius. During plenary debates, he would put on tinted glasses, then take long naps. I was one of the few senate beat reporters who took note of his disrespect for the boring, plodding, time-consuming (but time-honored) legislative process. Erap Estrada was in a hurry to win his next national election. His senate term was seen as time spent worthlessly while his giddy promoters raised funds and prepared the groundwork for the next big gig — a vice presidential run.
He was overwhelmingly elected vice president in the 1992 general elections, while the elected president, Fidel V. Ramos, barely squeaked past his many opponents (FVR got 24 percent of the votes). That Erap was a vice president of little consequence and with very little understanding of the national issues never mattered to the Erap-intoxicated electorate. Erap won by a landslide in the 1998 presidential election. That Erap would win and crush Joe de Venecia was a given on the day Erap filed his certificate of candidacy. It was all over, they said, except for the final count of the vast and unprecedented margin.
Jailed for plunder after his ouster from Malacañang, Erap made a spectacular comeback as mayor of Manila six years ago. It was the city of his late father, not his. But the carpetbagger status was just one of the minor irritants along the way to a major victory. Few politicians can pull off that feat — move from one city to another then crush the political plans of the city’s natives.
Erap, before 2019, had not only cultivated the myth of a politician-winner. He lived it and did it, his personal flaws and lack of governing competence subsumed in the overall narrative of invincibility.
The elections of 2019 finally caught up with the mythic figure. He was beaten by Isko Moreno, a former teen actor and his former protégé, a challenger half his age. Moreno did not only win, the Manila votes showed a desperate, urgent need to boot Erap out of the city and, finally, slay the myth of his political invincibility.
Erap, right now, cannot process the reality of an electoral loss, the shellshock made more bitter by the loss of sons and granddaughters in what should have been easy wins. For the meantime, the surname Estrada would be out of the metropolitan and the national political ecosystem.
The surname Binay will not disppear from the country’s political system. Abby Binay will serve a second term as Makati City mayor. Abby’s husband will still represent a district of her city, still to be supplanted by the Bonifacio Global City as the country’s main business hub. Nancy Binay was voted anew to the senate [partial and official results show as of presstime — ed.], for another six-year term.
But the loss of Jejomar Binay, the patriarch of the clan, in a contest for one of Makati’s two congressional seats, was one of the true few shockers of the 2019 elections. His loss to a candidate who bills himself as “The Kid” is now on record the second-most unexpected defeat in 2019, next only to Erap’s beating in Manila.
Jojo Binay, remember, was one of only two Cory Aquino OICs in Metro Manila (the other being Ben Abalos, of Mandaluyong) whose political careers evolved from appointees to duly elected Metro
Manila mayors and for three full terms of nine years at that. He was so used to winning that he upset Mar Roxas and Loren Legarda in the 2016 vice presidential race.
What was the third shocker? The loss of the reigning Eusebio clan, who lorded over Pasig City politics for close to three decades. The new mayor, Vico Sotto, is 29 years old.
In Quezon City, another mayoral aspirant past 70 years old, Bingbong Crisologo, lost to the young Joy Belmonte, though Belmonte’s victory was entirely expected. Crisologo campaigned on the “sawa” factor. Belmonte highlighted the age and the generational gap.
On May 13, Quezon City voters preferred the young candidate and opted out of the aged one.
Metro Manila’s overall leap of faith tended and trended young. On May 13, the metropolis had no political space left for aging men.
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