Sunday Times Editorial: IF WE HAD THE PRIMARY

If we had the primary


IF Filipinos had the US primary system, we would have a complex but interesting presidential contest.

For a change, the voters would go around the political parties and choose the party’s (or coalition’s) nominee directly.

In the 2010 presidential race, a primary system would send presidential candidates Mar Roxas, Manny Villar, Noli de Castro and Bayani Fernando scrambling around the country way ahead of the May election.

Every province would want to have the honor of holding the first primary, so the parties and the Comelec devise a system for that purpose. In our scenario, Catanduanes gets the privilege, and the presidential candidates campaign in Virac to win the first-ever Philippine primary.

To Catanduanes fly the campaign teams of Mar (Oras Na!) Roxas and Manny (Sipag at Tiyaga) Villar for the opposition, and Noli (Magandang Gabi, Bayan) de Castro and Bayani (Pink na Pink) Fernando for the administration.

The Philippine media cover the first primary in full force. The world press takes interest. The combined force of the presidential campaigns and the media outnumber the Catanduanes population. Floating villages are built to house the newcomers.

The candidates address the issues of the day: rising oil prices ($150 a barrel), the strengthening peso (P25.50 to the US dollar), constitutional change (allowing a naturalized citizen to run for the Senate), privatization (turning the Bilibid prison over to private business) and urban development (the importance of pink-colored sidewalks).

Roxas wins the primary for the opposition and de Castro for the administration. Villar and Fernando vow to move on.

The next primary puts Biliran on the map where the previous winners repeat their victory. Analysts say Villar and Fernando should withdraw, but they persist.

From single-state primaries, the process moves to the “Super-Tuesdays” where groups of provinces and cities vote. The candidates continue their fight in the MIMAROPA (Mindoros, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) region, the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) provinces and the SOCKSARGEN region. CAMANAVA (Cavite, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela) leads the primaries for the big cities.

Later, the administration party formally proclaims its candidate at a national convention at the Mall of Asia while the opposition convention announces its standard-bearer in Cubao, Quezon City.

The scenario is incomplete without our equivalent of the US Electoral College. In such a system, a candidate may win the popular vote but would not be proclaimed president without the electoral votes. So please stop asking why the Filipinos, great imitators of most anything American, will never have the primary, the electoral college, the jury system and probably a federal government.

FROM SUNDAY TIMES EDITORIAL, January 13, 2008

Graphic: African Road Poster, AllPosters

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