The 2010 Philippine Elections Series #2 : Campaign Prescriptions
I started writing this series on the elections to gather insights from people and to share my own thoughts as we all struggle to articulate values and points for consideration when choosing our next batch of elected officials. In my first piece I touched upon the candidates, and wrote a bit about what I thought about them. After having to endure weeks of terrible campaigning from everyone, I've decided to write a few suggestions for their campaigns to consider.
The election season being what it is, we can expect more ads, posters, sound bites, and promises to fly from candidates as they shift into the high gear of the campaign season. Since the law sets limits on spending, one might expect candidates to try and maximize what they put out for voters to consider. Here's what I want to hear, and what candidates might want to do to try to boost their numbers.
Noynoy Aquino
Okay, so Noynoy Aquino dropped the ball. He's let his huge lead in the polls (which are terrible gauges, but unfortunately, the only gauges we have of possible success) evaporate into a statistical tie with his nearest pursuer (Villar). He's failed to use his front-runner status to define the concrete issues that voters should consider, leaving us with general overtures about fighting corruption. Well, if Noynoy really thinks that this is a "good versus evil" thing, he has to take advantage of everything he has going for him -- a general liking from the media, surrogates who command attention, and so on -- in order to define how "good versus evil" is a fight against corruption, is a fight toward the transformation of our politics, and is a fight for a strong post-GMA republic.
1. Make eradicating the "Hindi Ka Nag-Iisa" music video a campaign promise, and fulfill it. With all due respect to the people who put that particular video together, I think it was terrible. The song was bad, the visuals look derived from one of those baranggay-goes-to-kill-the-aswang scenes in some Filipino movies, and Regine Velasquez's screeching pretty much rendered a pretty meaningless show of showbiz support even more meaningless.
2. Do not rap. No matter what your campaign managers say, DO NOT RAP. Find some cool rapper to do the rapping for you. Heck, have Kuryente and Maestra rap for you. Just don't do it yourself. You're running for President. You have to appear somewhat presidential, at least.
3. In connection with #2, remove Baby James from any and all of your campaign materials.
4. As the son of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, you are the only candidate who can invoke the appeal of EDSA with any credibility. You can use that, and you should do so to the hilt.
5. Since we're talking about EDSA, since your campaign is supposed to be about transformation, about change, about hope, about building a better Philippines (I suppose) there's a song from EDSA that you should make your campaign song: "Magkaisa." There is no song from any other candidate for President that can match this song, and the patriotic feelings it can evoke from anyone who thinks that EDSA was a great thing that happened to this country. It also resonates with your whole "break from the past/GMA" theme, and more importantly, it talks about hope and renewal. It talks about the triumph of good over evil. It also gives you an effective "Yes We Can" equivalent. When you say, "come together," "magkaisa," you give yourself an opportunity to float above the fray and can make voters look at you as someone who is beyond the pettiness of the current state of our politics. It also is a convenient launching point for any major theme in your platform.
6. Take control of your campaign message. It's your campaign, and you should have absolute say about what comes out from your camp and what doesn't. If it's true that Kris and Boy Abunda are basically running your campaign, you've got to make them understand that cuteness is not a message that people need to hear.
7. Just to be clear: Say what people need to hear, not what they want to hear. If they want cute things, you have to remind voters that cuteness will not solve anything. (As Pol Medina Jr. might put it, we already have a Pokemon in the Palace, and look at where we're at...).
8. Be careful about your surrogates and anyone that speaks for your campaign. If they spew negativity, you'll lose points. If they spew stupidity, you'll lose points.
9. Make a case for your competence. Talk about what you've done. Talk about your track record. Talk about concrete accomplishments, not just about character. Everybody can make a case about character. You need to highlight a track record.
10. Remember that as I write this, you are still the frontrunner. Define the issues that voters have to think about, and tell them why you're the guy to act on those issues. Be concrete.
11. Make a speech, seen on all TV networks, radio, and so on, addressing the issue of Hacienda Luisita and agrarian reform in the Philippines. Talk about how this issue is not simple, and how your family pretty much dropped the ball on this, but that you intend to do something about it. I am of course, assuming you can do something about it. If you can't, say so. After you deliver the speech, leave. Take no questions.
Manny Villar
I still think that Villar's campaign has been pretty successful. For all of the negative press that he's been getting Manny Villar has tied Noynoy Aquino statistically in polls, and his campaign jingle "tunay na mahirap" is actually becoming a meme of sorts. The populist message is a powerful one, but the way it's presently deployed smacks of naïveté, falsity, and outrageousness. As I said, whoever tells you he can eradicate poverty or get you out of it in one term is either a liar or is delusional.
1. Hammer home your populist message. Highlight how you've helped create jobs and opportunities for poor people. Focus on things like these instead of the general delusion that poverty can be eradicated in 6 years. Otherwise, si Villar ang tunay na mahirap paniwalaan.
2. If you've got managerial competence, flaunt it. Talk about how your companies are great drivers of growth and progress, and how they're run like well-run ships.
3. I think that in spite of everything, you've managed to not let the C-5 row get you down. I wish you handled it better by talking about reform and economic progress instead of just avoiding this one issue.
4. If the C-5 thing comes up again, talk about how it actually allowed a part of the country to concretely benefit.
5. Give us a clearer idea of what you platform is. We have little idea about what it is.
6. When people harp about corruption, the only answer you have is to talk about competence and how you have superior knowledge about how the economy can be fixed for a lot of people. You might be able to say "It's the economy, stupid."
7. Disown any alleged support from Malacañang.
8. Stop misleading people with polls, especially polls that you've commissioned, and whose data your campaign has chosen to release piecemeal to reflect "progress."
9. Emphasize "sipag at tiyaga," and talk about how these values, adopted by people, and working with you, can mean progress.
Gibo Teodoro
Gibo Teodoro is, by appearance, the most presidential of the candidates. He looks pretty intelligent, reasonable, and capable. He also has the support of the administration and its allies (unless it's true that Villar is Arroyo's true candidate). But these are all appearances, and there are serious questions that Teodoro has to answer.
1. Explain in clear terms how you could not have possibly been involved in putting the Ampatuans in a position to pull off the massacre that's attributed to them. Clarify how the weapons, machines, equipment, munitions, and other devices of death which look like they came from the government were not put into their hands under your watch, or how you did everything in your power not to let this happen.
2. Demonstrate your knowledge of issues more, and set the tone for debate, since Aquino doesn't seem like he wants to do it and since Villar probably doesn't care about doing so.
3. Being related to the Cojuangcos who own Luisita, offer a solution. If it doesn't make you look more competent, it will at least make people see what a lackluster leader Aquino will be.
4. Get popular, charismatic, youthful surrogates to go on the stump with you and for you. Put them in your ads instead of an airplane.
5. Be more vocal about your disagreements with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. I am sure you have disagreements, and that you can frame them without looking like an ingrate.
Dick Gordon
For all intents and purposes, I should like Dick Gordon. I like going to Subic, where he's done some pretty amazing stuff. He's a pretty good speaker compared to the rest of the presidential candidates. Thing is, he's running a campaign that seems devoid of anything new. For someone who is a self-styled "transformer," he has to show why voting for him will be something transformative. Otherwise, he might come off as Raul Manglapus, which may be giving him too much credit.
1. Give us an action plan for "transforming" the Philippines. Concrete stuff only please.
2. Change your campaign posters. You look fine but Bayani Fernando looks like somebody kicked him in the nuts when the picture was taken.
3. DO NOT USE BAYANI FERNANDO'S PINK CRAP. Otherwise, you stand to lose a lot of votes in Metro Manila.
4. Talk more about having to make unpopular choices and how they can translate to solutions that work.
5. Subic's a nice example, but it's getting pretty old. So are all of your references to the United States. Talk about great things that have happened and can happen in the Philippines.
6. Use your rhetorical gifts. Issue challenges to voters and exhort them to take action. And while you do it, you have to look like you mean it.
Erap Estrada
Erap should not be allowed to run for President.
Nicanor Perlas
Some reactions to my previous post were pretty strong ones about how I pretty much dismissed Nicanor Perlas because he really has no chance of winning. One of them goes: "Nicanor Perlas will win if we choose to make him win." That's pretty obvious. And that applies to pretty much every single candidate. But as I said, I have little incentive to see why I should even vote for Nicanor Perlas given how his platform, while certainly more substantive than what some other candidates have to say, is still woefully general and nebulous. And at this point in time, registering less than 1% on any of the polls means one thing: Even if he cheats, which is something he probably won't do, Nicanor Perlas has no chance in hell of winning. But he can campaign.
1. Fill the internet with your campaign. It's cheaper than anything else, and I don't think Comelec has any way of regulating it.
2. Talk about your competence, what you've done, and how you are a better alternative than Aquino, Villar, and Teodoro, which are all unattractive options.
JC de los Reyes
Has no chance in hell of winning too, sorry.
1. I like the party name "Ang Kapatiran" because it sounds like "Katipunan." And if you want to talk about a new Filipino politics, you're talking about something revolutionary. Draw the connection.
Eddie Villanueva
No concrete platform to speak of, but pretty conscious of moral values perhaps, Eddie Villanueva is nowhere near the stature he enjoyed in 2004. I personally don't think a cleric or religious ideologue should be head of state, and Eddie Villanueva falls smack in that category.
Jamby Madrigal
Has some pretty good one-liners, used Judy Ann Santos to get into the Senate, and without really offering us anything, decided to run for President. Two options:
1. Run for President and campaign for yourself. At least that way, you cannot indirectly campaign for or against Manny Villar or his opponents.
2. Drop out and throw your support behind some other candidate.
The election season being what it is, we can expect more ads, posters, sound bites, and promises to fly from candidates as they shift into the high gear of the campaign season. Since the law sets limits on spending, one might expect candidates to try and maximize what they put out for voters to consider. Here's what I want to hear, and what candidates might want to do to try to boost their numbers.
Noynoy Aquino
Okay, so Noynoy Aquino dropped the ball. He's let his huge lead in the polls (which are terrible gauges, but unfortunately, the only gauges we have of possible success) evaporate into a statistical tie with his nearest pursuer (Villar). He's failed to use his front-runner status to define the concrete issues that voters should consider, leaving us with general overtures about fighting corruption. Well, if Noynoy really thinks that this is a "good versus evil" thing, he has to take advantage of everything he has going for him -- a general liking from the media, surrogates who command attention, and so on -- in order to define how "good versus evil" is a fight against corruption, is a fight toward the transformation of our politics, and is a fight for a strong post-GMA republic.
1. Make eradicating the "Hindi Ka Nag-Iisa" music video a campaign promise, and fulfill it. With all due respect to the people who put that particular video together, I think it was terrible. The song was bad, the visuals look derived from one of those baranggay-goes-to-kill-the-aswang scenes in some Filipino movies, and Regine Velasquez's screeching pretty much rendered a pretty meaningless show of showbiz support even more meaningless.
2. Do not rap. No matter what your campaign managers say, DO NOT RAP. Find some cool rapper to do the rapping for you. Heck, have Kuryente and Maestra rap for you. Just don't do it yourself. You're running for President. You have to appear somewhat presidential, at least.
3. In connection with #2, remove Baby James from any and all of your campaign materials.
4. As the son of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, you are the only candidate who can invoke the appeal of EDSA with any credibility. You can use that, and you should do so to the hilt.
5. Since we're talking about EDSA, since your campaign is supposed to be about transformation, about change, about hope, about building a better Philippines (I suppose) there's a song from EDSA that you should make your campaign song: "Magkaisa." There is no song from any other candidate for President that can match this song, and the patriotic feelings it can evoke from anyone who thinks that EDSA was a great thing that happened to this country. It also resonates with your whole "break from the past/GMA" theme, and more importantly, it talks about hope and renewal. It talks about the triumph of good over evil. It also gives you an effective "Yes We Can" equivalent. When you say, "come together," "magkaisa," you give yourself an opportunity to float above the fray and can make voters look at you as someone who is beyond the pettiness of the current state of our politics. It also is a convenient launching point for any major theme in your platform.
6. Take control of your campaign message. It's your campaign, and you should have absolute say about what comes out from your camp and what doesn't. If it's true that Kris and Boy Abunda are basically running your campaign, you've got to make them understand that cuteness is not a message that people need to hear.
7. Just to be clear: Say what people need to hear, not what they want to hear. If they want cute things, you have to remind voters that cuteness will not solve anything. (As Pol Medina Jr. might put it, we already have a Pokemon in the Palace, and look at where we're at...).
8. Be careful about your surrogates and anyone that speaks for your campaign. If they spew negativity, you'll lose points. If they spew stupidity, you'll lose points.
9. Make a case for your competence. Talk about what you've done. Talk about your track record. Talk about concrete accomplishments, not just about character. Everybody can make a case about character. You need to highlight a track record.
10. Remember that as I write this, you are still the frontrunner. Define the issues that voters have to think about, and tell them why you're the guy to act on those issues. Be concrete.
11. Make a speech, seen on all TV networks, radio, and so on, addressing the issue of Hacienda Luisita and agrarian reform in the Philippines. Talk about how this issue is not simple, and how your family pretty much dropped the ball on this, but that you intend to do something about it. I am of course, assuming you can do something about it. If you can't, say so. After you deliver the speech, leave. Take no questions.
Manny Villar
I still think that Villar's campaign has been pretty successful. For all of the negative press that he's been getting Manny Villar has tied Noynoy Aquino statistically in polls, and his campaign jingle "tunay na mahirap" is actually becoming a meme of sorts. The populist message is a powerful one, but the way it's presently deployed smacks of naïveté, falsity, and outrageousness. As I said, whoever tells you he can eradicate poverty or get you out of it in one term is either a liar or is delusional.
1. Hammer home your populist message. Highlight how you've helped create jobs and opportunities for poor people. Focus on things like these instead of the general delusion that poverty can be eradicated in 6 years. Otherwise, si Villar ang tunay na mahirap paniwalaan.
2. If you've got managerial competence, flaunt it. Talk about how your companies are great drivers of growth and progress, and how they're run like well-run ships.
3. I think that in spite of everything, you've managed to not let the C-5 row get you down. I wish you handled it better by talking about reform and economic progress instead of just avoiding this one issue.
4. If the C-5 thing comes up again, talk about how it actually allowed a part of the country to concretely benefit.
5. Give us a clearer idea of what you platform is. We have little idea about what it is.
6. When people harp about corruption, the only answer you have is to talk about competence and how you have superior knowledge about how the economy can be fixed for a lot of people. You might be able to say "It's the economy, stupid."
7. Disown any alleged support from Malacañang.
8. Stop misleading people with polls, especially polls that you've commissioned, and whose data your campaign has chosen to release piecemeal to reflect "progress."
9. Emphasize "sipag at tiyaga," and talk about how these values, adopted by people, and working with you, can mean progress.
Gibo Teodoro
Gibo Teodoro is, by appearance, the most presidential of the candidates. He looks pretty intelligent, reasonable, and capable. He also has the support of the administration and its allies (unless it's true that Villar is Arroyo's true candidate). But these are all appearances, and there are serious questions that Teodoro has to answer.
1. Explain in clear terms how you could not have possibly been involved in putting the Ampatuans in a position to pull off the massacre that's attributed to them. Clarify how the weapons, machines, equipment, munitions, and other devices of death which look like they came from the government were not put into their hands under your watch, or how you did everything in your power not to let this happen.
2. Demonstrate your knowledge of issues more, and set the tone for debate, since Aquino doesn't seem like he wants to do it and since Villar probably doesn't care about doing so.
3. Being related to the Cojuangcos who own Luisita, offer a solution. If it doesn't make you look more competent, it will at least make people see what a lackluster leader Aquino will be.
4. Get popular, charismatic, youthful surrogates to go on the stump with you and for you. Put them in your ads instead of an airplane.
5. Be more vocal about your disagreements with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. I am sure you have disagreements, and that you can frame them without looking like an ingrate.
Dick Gordon
For all intents and purposes, I should like Dick Gordon. I like going to Subic, where he's done some pretty amazing stuff. He's a pretty good speaker compared to the rest of the presidential candidates. Thing is, he's running a campaign that seems devoid of anything new. For someone who is a self-styled "transformer," he has to show why voting for him will be something transformative. Otherwise, he might come off as Raul Manglapus, which may be giving him too much credit.
1. Give us an action plan for "transforming" the Philippines. Concrete stuff only please.
2. Change your campaign posters. You look fine but Bayani Fernando looks like somebody kicked him in the nuts when the picture was taken.
3. DO NOT USE BAYANI FERNANDO'S PINK CRAP. Otherwise, you stand to lose a lot of votes in Metro Manila.
4. Talk more about having to make unpopular choices and how they can translate to solutions that work.
5. Subic's a nice example, but it's getting pretty old. So are all of your references to the United States. Talk about great things that have happened and can happen in the Philippines.
6. Use your rhetorical gifts. Issue challenges to voters and exhort them to take action. And while you do it, you have to look like you mean it.
Erap Estrada
Erap should not be allowed to run for President.
Nicanor Perlas
Some reactions to my previous post were pretty strong ones about how I pretty much dismissed Nicanor Perlas because he really has no chance of winning. One of them goes: "Nicanor Perlas will win if we choose to make him win." That's pretty obvious. And that applies to pretty much every single candidate. But as I said, I have little incentive to see why I should even vote for Nicanor Perlas given how his platform, while certainly more substantive than what some other candidates have to say, is still woefully general and nebulous. And at this point in time, registering less than 1% on any of the polls means one thing: Even if he cheats, which is something he probably won't do, Nicanor Perlas has no chance in hell of winning. But he can campaign.
1. Fill the internet with your campaign. It's cheaper than anything else, and I don't think Comelec has any way of regulating it.
2. Talk about your competence, what you've done, and how you are a better alternative than Aquino, Villar, and Teodoro, which are all unattractive options.
JC de los Reyes
Has no chance in hell of winning too, sorry.
1. I like the party name "Ang Kapatiran" because it sounds like "Katipunan." And if you want to talk about a new Filipino politics, you're talking about something revolutionary. Draw the connection.
Eddie Villanueva
No concrete platform to speak of, but pretty conscious of moral values perhaps, Eddie Villanueva is nowhere near the stature he enjoyed in 2004. I personally don't think a cleric or religious ideologue should be head of state, and Eddie Villanueva falls smack in that category.
Jamby Madrigal
Has some pretty good one-liners, used Judy Ann Santos to get into the Senate, and without really offering us anything, decided to run for President. Two options:
1. Run for President and campaign for yourself. At least that way, you cannot indirectly campaign for or against Manny Villar or his opponents.
2. Drop out and throw your support behind some other candidate.
posted by mikosamson at 10:16 AM
1 Comments:
Being a voter since I was 17 years old,yes folks you read it right...17, this dissection of all the presidential candidates really cemented what I think of them. miko, you're my simon cowell! I agree in most of your comments although, I would really like to read more of their positive traits as well. Oh, lastly, please add illusyonada to Jamby's list and does the fact that Gordon's atenean made you lean towards him more? Just curious.
*for those curious peeps who want to know how i voted when i was 17 during the 1995 elections, it was simple. Our grandfather took me to the polls and told me to pose as my registered Aunt who was already residing in the States.
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