Major Estrada surge looming DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 01/15/2010

Major Estrada surge looming DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 01/15/2010 The rapid downward spiral of the ABS-CBN-Inquirer-Ayala candidate has continued since the inception of his candidacy when SWS floated the preposterously high 60 percent in October 2009. Then Erap practically doubled his rating in the last Pulse Asia survey coming close to a statistical tie with Senator Villar. When the Comelec does come out with a decision not to disqualify Erap because it cannot legally do so, Estrada’s rating will again double while those of the other two will be dragged down. It will then become a very close three-way race. The edge will go to the candidate communicating the most powerful message to win the hearts and minds of the people. In this, Erap has an unparalleled edge. Erap’s edge had prompted rivals and their elite backers to keep Erap out of the limelight by simply excluding him from various news reports. Like the Philippine Star item on the “Impounding of pork barrel” by Jess Diaz which simply omitted Estrada from among the presidentiables, or the recent exclusion of Erap from the debate staged by the Namfrel chairman’s wife at Ayala Alabang. But these are to no avail because President Estrada automatically draws the focus of public interest simply by being there. Estrada’s attendance of the National Security Council meeting was timely and wise, despite the misgivings of some. Invoking the need to respond in the interest of the national welfare, Estrada rose to statesmanship, reinforcing the people’s faith in his higher qualities. While Estrada has been piling up positive points, the two other main candidates have been locking horns over the latest SWS survey which showed the declining popularity of the Yellow candidate. It reported a dramatic leap for Villar. The Yellow camp could not help but react to disparage the survey as it was timed for a radio-TV ads campaign of Villar. But the Yellows forget that it was the same survey outfit that gave them the unbelievable poll ratings in 2009 when the Yellow candidate launched his bid. While their forefingers were pointing at Villar for allegedly manipulating the SWS survey, their thumbs were pointing at their own faces. It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. In the final analysis the winner of this election campaign will be decided by “the message, the message, the message.” In the last US presidential elections, Obama’s camp simply made the massage with: “Change we can believe in.” In this Philippine presidential campaign, both the Yellows and Villar have failed to deliver a viable message. The Yellows have tried to foist the “legacy of the father and the mother,” but the people ask instead: What is the candidate’s own message and mission? The Yellows have failed to answer this. As for Villar, while it is true that his campaign ditties’ subliminal impact is already reflected in their unconscious repetition by children of the jingles, their elders are asking: If Villar is elected he’ll have to recover all these expenses. Where else is he going to get it but our coffers. This is backfiring on Villar. That Erap has continued to sustain and strengthen his candidacy to this crucial stage of the campaign is already become a message in itself. It has dispelled the early notion spread in 2009 by all the rival camps that he will be withdrawing in favor of Chiz, then in favor of the Yellow candidate, but now it is the Villar camp spreading the disinformation that Erap will be withdrawing in favor of Villar. He has also greatly dispelled the notion that he will be disqualified, and when the Comelec finally accepts his candidacy with finality then a second and major “Balik Erap” wave will sweep the land. With his message “Erap tapat sa mahirap” consolidating the vast 80 percent poor majority of the land, Erap will sweep past the three other candidates still competing for the classes A, B, C and the middle class youth of the land. The Filipino ruling class and its foreign predatory partners continue to fear and exhibit hostility to President Estrada because of his popular policies that directly in conflict with and obstruct the elite’s greed. Unknown to most. these rapacious forces continue to plot plunder, such as the new tax measures to tax the self-employed millions. This scheme taxes even those living hand-to-mouth existences, such as the lowly sampaguita garland makers threading those little flowers and hawking them on the streets, the banana-cue vendors on street corners and even those wicker craft peddlers in those bullock drawn wagons coming down from the provinces to sell their wares in Metro Manila. Of course, the power and water oligarchs know Erap will also put a brake to the utility rates hikes that have already been approved by ERC and MWSS. The elite’s fear has compelled them to put their top generals in the frontline of the elections to better trend or manipulate it. Hank Greenberg, chief of the controversial AIG of the 2008 Wall Street collapse, has put its Jose Cuisia at the helms of Namfrel to watch over its interests in this election. As it did in 2004 against FPJ, Namfrel will be tasked by the elite to watch over its political interests in the 2010 election, and with its partner in crime SWS trending the polls and voting in favor of its puppet candidates against Erap. The harder they work to obstruct Erap’s destiny the harder Erap and the people will fight back to fulfill the destiny of this nation. (Tune to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, M-W-F, 6 p.m. To 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. On “1986-2010: Decades of Shipping Industry Decay”; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)   (Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel) Source:  The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/commentary/20100115com6.html

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