PNoy’s true motive in Palace dinner

Batas Mauricio

JUST exactly what is the purpose of President Aquino in hosting a dinner in Malacanang for Sen. Grace Poe, Sen. Chiz Escudero, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas? To convince Poe and Escudero to abandon their plans to run for the presidency and vice presidency, and instead join Roxas in his quest for the country’s top position in 2016?

Surely, that dinner is not intended to convince Roxas to give up his presidential ambition once again, like what he did in 2010, when he gave way to the then Sen. Benigno Aquino III as the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, right?

But is Aquino thinking that he can really convince Poe and Escudero to give way to Roxas during the dinner he will be hosting for them, in the presence of Roxas? And what can he possibly tell Poe and Escudero to make them agree to support Mar Roxas instead?

That the surveys showing Poe as the frontunning presidential candidate in 2016 are not true because they were, in reality, merely fabricated to discourage Vice President Jejomar Binay from running? That the support promised to Poe and Chiz if they pursued their candidacies in 2016 will not really come?

With due respect, what that dinner invitation shows are the pragmatism and awesome political savvy of President Aquino, who is derided by many of his detractors and political opponents as incapable of plotting and executing even the most elementary political maneuvers.

The dinner invitation proves to me that Aquino believes he can come up with a formidable compromise that would enable him to form a ticket that will be acceptable to Filipino voters, particularly those who still hold him dear in their hearts, and thus will be assured of victory in 2016.

Whether it is going to be a Poe-Roxas tandem or Roxas-Poe ticket, or even a ticket which is ultimately without Poe or Escudero or even without Roxas, I am sure that Aquino’s efforts are actually directed at making sure that his candidates will win, for he has so much at stake on who is going to sit in Malacanang after he steps down from power noon of June 30, 2016.

Fastforwarding the intended dinner, I can see several possibilities. The first, of course, is that, Aquino will be announcing that Poe and Escudero had agreed to support Mar Roxas, with Poe running for vice president under the Liberal Party.

The second is that Aquino will be announcing that neither Poe nor Roxas agreed to slide down, and both will still be running for presidency, but that the two of them agreed and committed themselves to pursue, at all cost, the reform agenda of his “straight path” governance, where Aquino will be retained as a senior government adviser, no matter who gets elected. Clever and beneficial, and even Solomonic, don’t you think so?

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo. com