IF you are genuinely seeking the No. 1 leadership position in a country, you must have fire in your belly.
This is the determined, single-minded desire to clinch the throne come what may, and at whatever cost. The desire for power should be overwhelming and even ego-driven, and one should sleep, eat, move and breathe with that single objective in mind.From the very start, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go did not have this fire in his belly. The spark, too, was not in Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when he filed his certificate of candidacy for president, admitting that his party, the PDP-Laban, only directed him to file a couple of hours before the Commission on Elections deadline. Senator Bato knew that he just had to hold the base for somebody else who’s the real candidate of his party. This real candidate turned out to be none, because Bong Go filed under the political party with a quaint, even ungrammatical, name: Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS).
‘The Comelec’s list of 15 presidential candidates may now be 14, and should be trimmed further. The fewer they are, the better for the nation to elect
a majority president, something we have not had in a long, long time.’
Go’s case is very much different. He is the choice of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte to continue with the supposed exemplary performance of the present dispensation. His being the chosen one came at a great personal cost to the President who had to part ways politically with his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. Sara had decided to be the vice presidential candidate of their rival, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Go’s unplanned, undetermined quest for a higher national position became apparent when he quit the vice presidential race and filed for the presidency, on the urging of his mentor, President Duterte. Now, he is his own man, as he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race. His reasons? He does not want Duterte to be trapped in the middle ahead of the 2022 national elections, and secondly, his family wanted him to abandon his ambition to become president.
In an interview at the Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan City during the Andres Bonifacio Day celebration, Go admitted that his “heart and mind have been contradicting with his actions.”
“Ayaw rin talaga ng aking pamilya kaya naisip ko na siguro ay hindi ko pa panahon sa ngayon. Diyos lang ang nakakaalam kung kailan ang tamang panahon,” Go told reporters.
(My family disapproves it, so perhaps it is not yet my time. Only God knows when the right time is.)
It augurs well for the 2022 presidential race to have Senator Go out of the race. The Comelec’s list of 15 presidential candidates may now be 14, and should be trimmed further.
The fewer they are, the better for the nation to elect a majority president, something we have not had in a long, long time.
