Aquino warns: Gains can falter after just one election

“Lahat ba ng ating naipundar, lahat ng ating pinaghirapan maglalaho dahil lang sa isang eleksyon?”

(Everything that we have invested in, everything that we have worked for, will it be gone after just one election?)

That was President Benigno Aquino III’s rhetorical question near the end of his last State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

Immediately after, the camera showed the split-screen images of Vice President Jejomar Binay, Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Senator Grace Poe, the so-called top contenders for the presidential race in 2016.

Laughter filled the hall because of the unexpected video stunt.

Before that, Aquino cautioned against allowing the country to return to its crooked ways.

“Muli tayong mapag-iiwanan at mababaliwala ang pataas na trajectory ng ating ekonomiya,” he warned.

(We will again be left behind and the upward trajectory of our economy will be put to waste.)

He said he couldn’t think of a person who would dare cut a tree when its first fruit is about to be harvested.

“Sa ganitong pananaw ang susunod na halalan ay referendum po para sa daang matuwid. Kayo ang magdedesisyon kung ang pagbabago bang ating tinatamasa ay magiging permanente o tatanawin lang bilang tsamba at panandaliang pagbangon sa mahabang kasaysayan ng pagkadapa,” he said.

(In this view, the next election is a referendum for the straight path. You will decide if the change that we are experiencing now will be permanent or we will consider it a lucky incident and a short-lived ascent in a long history of falling.)

Binay is the standard bearer of the opposition party United Nationalist Alliance while Roxas and Poe are among the officials that Aquino have  been meeting with in relation to the 2016 elections. One of the two are expected to be declared the presidential candidate that will supported by the administration coalition. AU