Marcos won over Cory; Arroyo over FPJ

Inquirer’s Fernando del Mundo’ wrote the last of his  two-part series on Edsa ’86 on Wednesday, which was a recollection of the events leading up to the “Mother of all People Power Revolts.”

Del Mundo’s interview with Roberto V. Ongpin, former trade minister during the Marcos government, was very revealing.

I was a reporter during the martial law period and covered Edsa ’86 from start to finish, and I can’t agree with Ongpin more when he said Ferdinand Marcos won the snap election against Cory Aquino.

“With the (snap) election, a lot of people felt that he (Marcos) lost. You know, he won. In my view he really won,” he said.

Estimates by experts placed Marcos’ lead over Cory by 300,000 votes.

Voters back then, who were as politically immature as now, chose Marcos over Cory because they didn’t know any better.

Most people in the rural areas, who comprise the bulk of the voting population, didn’t know Cory.

She was only popular in Metro Manila and other big cities.

The problem with Marcos was that he wanted to show the United States—which was pressuring him to step down—that he was still very popular with the people, and so he cheated at the polls to show a wide margin.

* * *

Speaking of cheating at the polls to gain a convincing lead over an opponent, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did it.

GMA did win over Fernando Poe Jr.; perhaps by a small margin, but she won.

FPJ turned off millions of voters because he shunned meeting with local officials in his campaign sorties and was a clumsy speaker on stage.

I’ve talked with FPJ’s close friends and they all said that he lost because he was too shy to face people.

Gloria’s blunder was to talk with Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano over the phone to inquire about the results of the voting even before the counting took place.

That historic conversation was tapped and recorded.

The rest is history.

* * *

Senatorial candidate Grace Poe-Llamanzares will suffer the same fate as her father, FPJ.

Llamanzares, who was kicked out of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), made a big blunder when she admitted she bears a grudge against Cebuano voters who chose Gloria over FPJ in the 2004 presidential election.

Duh!

She should have kept her feelings to herself since she’s supposed to be courting their votes.

Her political gaucherie will make voters in other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, which areas  are Cebuano-speaking, shun her.