Editor’s note: Any opinions expressed here are solely the author’s.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — For many observers, insiders and outsiders alike,President Benigno Aquino III’s final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 27 confirmed what had been anticipated all along — that the torch will be passed on to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II.
Two days after Aquino’s longest annual speech, reports made the rounds quoting Liberal Party stalwarts that it would indeed be Roxas, during a formal announcement at Club Filipino in San Juan City on July 31.
But on Thursday morning (July 30), Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. told reporters that he had no information about this and in fact, he had no information on the president’s schedule for Friday.
Something that the media would find hard to believe.
On Wednesday evening (July 29), Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice had already been citing the ruling party’s secretary general and Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento in confirming that Roxas would get the official endorsement.
And the Palace Communications officials, headed by Coloma, would certainly have gotten wind of this.
It might be interesting to note that the president’s men are supposed to belong to two groups — Balay and Samar — in reference to the locations of their offices in Quezon City during the 2010 campaign.
Though both camps may have downplayed and denied such a distinction nor division, reports maintained that Coloma belonged to the Balay group — the one that catapulted then Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay to the second highest office of the land. The “Noy-Bi” group, as opposed to the “Noy-Mar” group.
And the vice president and the president had already gone separate ways since Binay’s resignation last June.
