Veep: Which is which?

Filipinos are looking at two candidates for Vice-President come 2010 elections. DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno for Lakas-CMD and Senator Mar Roxas for the Liberal Party.

Who should we vote?

Let me present to you these candidates:

Senator Mar Roxas

Astute political observers like former Ambassador Ernesto Maceda, have noted that Roxas hasn’t improved a bit in the ratings game.

“The latest August Pulse Asia survey had reported that Mar did not sustain his May rise from 8 percent to 13. His rating decreased to 11 percent, putting him again in 5th place,” Maceda wrote in his recent column in the Daily Tribune.
Even more disheartening, was Maceda’s observation that, “the survey also confirmed that Mar could not even carry his native Visayas where Manny Villar beat him decisively by a 30-16 score.”

The argument that Villar is leading the surveys because he is the biggest spender when it comes to advertising does not wash. If that were the case, then Roxas should now be at No. 2 in the surveys because he’s the biggest spender next to Villar when it comes to airing those “padyak” and “ramdam ko kayo” infomercials.

Inquirer columnist Conrad de Quiros was correct in his opinion (despite what Mrs. Palengke, Korina Sanchez, is ranting about him) that Roxas was simply “not capturing the people’s imagination.”

De Quiros was correct in saying that Roxas’ withdrawal from the presidential race “saved him from a fate worse than death."

Even sliding down as Aquino’s running mate would’t be too comforting either for Roxas.

Despite all his efforts to underplay his elitist background, first through his “Mr. Palengke” ads and later, through his “Ramdam ko kayo” and “padyak” infomercials, plus his “bakya” attempts to open his personal life to the masa via a televised pamanhikan and a church-hopping spree to choose a wedding venue for his marriage to TV celebrity Korina Sanchez, Mar always betrays his true colors

DILG Secretary Ronni Puno

The preference for Puno as the VP candidate of the Lakas-CMD might very well change the dynamics of the 2010 presidential election.

Senator Edgardo Angara said it best during the recent anniversary of the Napolcom. He called Puno the “master strategist of his generation.”

Angara, not given to loose words and hyperbole, is well aware of Puno’s track record of managing three successful presidential campaigns. With Puno as the preferred VP of the Lakas-CMD, he will apply his mastery of winning big elections to win one for himself and Gibo Teodoro.

Puno is the modern-day political strategist, coupling the nuts-and-bolts of political operations with technical savvy, a keen sense of demographics, a superb grasp of political trends and, most important of all, a razor-sharp, unfailing analysis of political situations.

On the profound side, Puno is essentially the modern management man who, again, is credentialed with reforming, energizing, modernizing private and public institutions placed under his management.

In his present Cabinet posting, for instance, it would take us more than another piece to discuss the reforms he has put in place in the DILG to further empower local government units and professionalize the Philippine National Police (PNP) along with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

He would bring this amazing skill set to the office of the VP or to the Cabinet portfolio that may be assigned to him. He would be a perfect VP to Gibo Teodoro, the most brilliant among the presidential hopefuls and a certified policy wonk like Puno.

Puno’s leadership of the DILG is essentially a story of breathtaking reforms, innovations and re-engineering of institutions toward one dominant goal – full empowerment of the country’s LGUs. Puno made breakthroughs in his effort to secure corporate powers for the LGUs: borrowing development funds from mainstream credit sources, monetizing IRA allotments in advance to fund pet projects, and the power to correct mismatches between development projects planned by the national government and the actual needs at grass roots level.

To give LGUs a voice in the national decision-making process, Puno gave up his board seat with the NEDA and assigned it to a designated representative of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), which is the umbrella group of all organizations of local elective officials from governors down to barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) officials.

Puno is also credited for conceptualizing, implementing or completing P18.7 billion worth of infrastructure and capability-building projects for LGUs across the country.

Puno’s reform-minded ways do not only cover the re-engineering of institutions to fully empower the LGUs. Among his other landmark initiatives are not corporate at all but directed at the protection of the marginal sectors of society.

He launched a special protection program for women and children, institutionalized anti-graft and anti-red-tape measures at the LGU level and increased the visibility of the police force. He has worked long and hard to get more benefits for police officers, firemen and other public safety officers.