Well-deserved electoral defeats and debacles

There are electoral debacles that many would consider as good for the Filipinos. I can mention a few prominent defeats like those of incumbent Senator Bong Revilla and of former senator Manny Pacquiao.

I add the devastating debacle of incumbent Senator Cynthia Villar who lost her bid for the sole congressional seat in Las Piñas. She never lost an election before, either as city mayor, congresswoman, or senator. For the longest time in Las Piñas, whatever the Villars wanted they got. But this time, the Villars opposed the Aguilars, their own relatives. Cynthia might have forgotten that Las Piñas is the kingdom of the Aguilars, and her husband Manny Villar is from Tondo.

Cynthia is the mother of former Duterte DPWH secretary Mark Villar who is also an incumbent senator. She is also the mother of Camille who reportedly spent ?3.5 billion and managed to win a slot. Being term-limited, Cynthia ran and was defeated by Mark Anthony Santos, an incumbent councilor of Las Piñas, who garnered 108,206. Villar only managed to get a distant 78,526 votes or a plurality of 29,680. Of the total registered voters of 318,542, only 252,879 voted.

That Villar defeat is a major upset. Never before had the Villars been beaten in their own backyard. But I say that the Villars deserved such a defeat. They are building a giant business empire and palpably they are in government to protect their businesses. To me, this is a major conflict of interest. As legislators, they are enacting laws that may directly impact their real estate, malls, and water distribution businesses. That debacle in Las Piñas is a message that the people will no longer tolerate that kind of travesty.

The earth-shaking victory of Pam Baricuatro in Cebu was "a breath of fresh air inside a catacomb of stench and decay". Cebuanos have seen an incumbent governor who is building a Capitol building on top of the mountain in Balamban. Well, I have some news for you. Balamban gave Pam an overwhelming win over Gwen, despite the fact that all Balamban officials are allied with Governor Gwen. In Mandaue City both Jonkie Ouano and Jonas Cortes, the two mayoral rivals, carried Gwen. The vice gubernatorial candidate is from Mandaue.

No one carried Pam in Mandaue City. Both the mayor and the congresswoman are allies of Gwen. See, what happened? It was the people who gave Baricuatro that huge victory over Gwen. The same was true in Carcar City. Both the incumbent mayor and the challengers carried Gwen. The Barcenas and the Apura political carried Gwen. But it was the people who carried Pam to victory. Gwen had no strong leader in the 1st District while the Gullases are all for Gwen. But then again, Pam won by huge margins in all the cities of Talisay, Naga, and Carcar, and the towns of Minglanilla, San Fernando, and Sibonga.

There are many well-deserved defeats and political debacles, including those of Philip Salvador and Willy Revillame. Apollo Quiboloy deserved to be defeated in his bid for senator. Dan Fernandez, to the mind of the Dutertes, deserved to be defeated in his bid for governor of Laguna which was won by Sol Aragones. Fernandez was only third in a field of seven hopefuls. Benny Abante too, a nemesis of the Dutertes, to the mind VP Sara, deserved his fate when he lost in his reelection bid for Manila's 6th District. Congressman Gus Tambunting of Parañaque's 2nd District, deserved to be unseated by Brian Yamsuan, clearly the better man.

Michael Keon, first cousin of BBM was defeated by James, Bryan Alcid, a non-Marcos, as Laoag city mayor. BBM supported Alcid. Something isn’t well between the Marcoses and Keons. Michael's late mom was a sister of BBM's late dad. They say that blood is thicker than water, but politics is thicker than blood. In Makati, the husband of defeated senatorial aspirant Abigail Binay, was defeated by Nancy Binay as Makati city mayor. Senator Koko Pimentel lost to Marcy Teodoro as congressman of Marikina’s 1st District. He is the better man but he is from Cagayan de Oro.

Francis Tolentino lost his reelection bid despite the fact that his performance in the Senate exceeded those of Bong Go and Bato. Tolentino was punished by the Dutertes for abandoning them in favor of BBM. In Philippine politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests. When interests come in conflict, friendship and blood relations are set aside.