By Junex Doronio
WITH THE TRADITIONAL OPPOSITION in disarray after their successive electoral debacles, anti-corruption crusader Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong now looms as a potential alternative candidate to challenge presumptive administration presidential timbers in 2028 in Vice President Sara Duterte and Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.
Just recently, at least 100 mayors gathered together to launch the Movement for Good Governance with Magalong as its “talking head”.
In his interview with Christian Esguerra on the Facts First podcast, political analyst Ronald Llamas acknowledged that the anti-corruption movement of some mayors led by Magalong appeared like a grass-fire akin to the 1992 experience of Miriam Defensor Santiago who was also riding on anti-corruption crusader and believed by many to have actually won the presidential race and to the “Erap para sa Mahirap” campaign that propelled former action star Joseph Estrada to the presidency.
Llamas, who served as presidential political adviser of then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, said it was also the grass-fire phenomena that catapulted his erstwhile boss to power.
However, he expressed doubts that the reported 100 mayors will solidify into a united force to push for the Magalong presidency since they “belong to different parties.”
Llamas, in an earlier interview, had apparently been rooting for Senator Risa Hontiveros for 2028.
“Naipasa na ang baton kay Risa,” Llamas said, referring to the entrusting of the opposition leadership to Hontiveros who was the sole survivor of the opposition Senate slate in 2022. (ai/mnm)
