By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
THE great thing about last Monday’s election is that, Grace Poe topped the senatorial elections.
It must be ego-shattering for the three re-electionists – Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, and Alan Cayetano –whose desire for the number one slot is not a secret to the public.
Other pluses about Monday’s polls are the re-election of Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
Trillanes because despite limited TV ads due to limited resources, he was able to make it to number nine, an improvement over his number 11 ranking in the 2007 elections.
His victory in this election proved that his 2007 win, when he was under detention, was no fluke. If the 2007 votes for him were “acts of protest” against Arroyo, last Monday’s votes were for his willingness to take on even the powerful and his strong stand on issues that he thinks work against the interest of the Filipino people.
The re-election of Pimentel is made more meaningful by the non-inclusion of Juan Miguel Zubiri, who stole from him five years of his first term.
Grace winning a slot in the Magic 12 was expected especially with her impressive surge in the last three weeks of the campaign. It was her going over Loren Legarda, who had led since the very beginning that stunned even those who voted for her. In fact , in Pulse Asia’s May 10-11 survey, although she was ranked 2-7, she was still behind Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Alan Cayetano.
Grace said her prayer was to make her win comfortably, not the stress-filled number 11 or 12. “God must have answered my prayers,” she said in her usual down-to-earth way.
What’s admirable about Grace campaign was how she wisely used her formidable political asset – her father, the late FPJ – to project true self: unassuming, honest, competent.
Add to that the support of her mother, movie queen Susan Roces. After Susan’s TV endorsement those of the Iglesia ni Cristo and even Kris Aquino were just icing on the cake.
Grace admitted that most of the votes for her were “vindication votes” — from people who felt that what was stolen from her father in 2004 should be given to her.
In a morning ANC TV interview, social scientist Randy David remarked that FPJ must be smiling from where he is now. Grace shared the joke among FPJ’s friends that by now, “tumatagay na yun”.
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