The Untold Story of the Lakas-Kampi Execom Decision

There´s this scuttlebutt making the rounds of the nation´s cafes that Gibo Teodoro´s selection as the Lakas-CMD´s standard bearer by its National Executive Council was intended to be just that: a selection of the party´s preferred candidate for president.

How did Ronnie Puno get into the picture? Friends who were present at the time said that while the execom members were only supposed to choose between Gibo and BF (Bayani Fernando), quite a number wrote down RPV´s name on the secret ballot as well.

In fact, so many wrote down Puno´s name with Gibo´s the execom eventually decided to announce a Gibo-Ronnie tandem, subject of course to later ratification by the national convention of all the party members.

And that´s how all the brouhaha on the coming elections started:

Seems RPV´s name has sent an immediate shudder to all corners of the fragmented opposition, eliciting fears that the same brain which master minded the electoral strategies of Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and GMA that eventually led them to Malacañang is again afoot, this team working for himself as well, and hence vastly more motivated.

During the recent anniversary of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), Senator Edgardo Angara called Puno the "master strategist of his generation."

Angara was referring to Puno´s unblemished track record of master minding three successful presidential campaigns. With Puno as the preferred VP of the Lakas-CMD, he will be doubly motivated to wield his "Art of War" to win one for himself and Gibo Teodoro.

As a modern-day political strategist, Puno is deft at coupling the nuts-and-bolts of political operations with keen technical savvy, uncanny sense of demographics, masterful grasp of political trends and a mature, razor-sharp analysis of political situations.

For instance, the latest SWS survey in which Johnny-come-lately Noynoy Aquino was shown to be leading with 50% in four vote rich areas and 51% for the Noynoy-Mar tandem, the Noli-Puno duo was dead last with 4-6%. The survey, conducted last Sept. 5-6, 2009 did not include Gibo, nor the Gibo-Puno tandem.

But recall how FVR, who wasn´t doing very well in the surveys prior to elections, managed to win in 1992 with just 23% of the votes cast for president. More Puno magic.

Even considering that Gibo´s rating in other surveys prior to his selection was a mere two percent, Lakas-CMD strategists believe he can still manage to snag GMA´s 20% popularity despite all the criticisms leveled against her.

Also, not to forget, Sen. Manny Villar, de Castro, and Chiz Escudero still have to make their final decision regarding their earlier announcements to seek the party´s nomination as president.

With 48 million registered voters and counting, it´s looking more and more like Puno´s favored battleground with a plurality of votes deciding the outcome.

Traditionally, the Philippine vice president is given a key cabinet post such as social welfare (GMA), Housing (Noli de Castro) and Anti-Organized Crime (Estrada, PAOCTF).

As a modern management guru, Puno has been credited with reforming, energizing, modernizing private and public institutions placed under his stewardship.

At the Dept. of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the reforms he has put in place to empower local government units, professionalize the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) are legion.

Puno´s leadership of the DILG is essentially a story of reforms, innovations and re-engineering of institutions to fully empower the country´s LGUs. Among these are the corporate powers for the LGUs: borrowing development funds from mainstream credit sources, monetizing IRA allotments in advance to fund pet projects, and the power to correct mismatches between development projects planned by the national government and the actual needs at grass roots level.

In another instance, to give LGUs a voice in the national decision-making process, Puno gave up his board seat with the NEDA and assigned it to a designated representative of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), which is the umbrella group of all organizations of local elective officials from governors down to barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) officials.

Puno is also credited for conceptualizing, implementing or completing P18.7 billion infrastructure and capability-building projects for LGUs across the country.

Puno´s reform mind set does not only cover the re-engineering of institutions to fully empower the LGUs but also protect the marginalized fringes of society.