What if Noynoy, by a historical twist, were still president today? Would he be able to promptly act on the Marawi crisis compared to his lackadaisical reaction to the Luneta bus hostage-taking incident where nine tourists from HongKong were killed during the first few months of his term?
What if VP Leni, by a twist of fate, were the president today? As the Marawi siege became full-blown, with no experience in executive leadership whatsoever, would she go crying to the United Nations for immediate help like when she fearfully denounced to the world the spate of killings due to the illegal drugs campaign of the Duterte government?
Would she use her presidential powers to do an ‘abra cadabra’ on the election protest of ex-Sen. Bongbong Marcos?
What if the coup-plotting Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV were the Malacanang tenant? With his military background as a former Navy officer, would he not also declare martial law in Mindanao sensing the Marawi conflict is internationally flavored with ISIS ideology and foreign-funding; and that there is a deliberate goal to set up Marawi City as a future ISIS caliphate in the Philippines and Southeast Asia?
Would he obey his Communications Secretary if the latter suggested he should appear for interview at BBC’s Hardtalk for the second time?
What if Mar Roxas were elected president instead of Digong Duterte? Would he have been better prepared to solve our neck-deep problems in the illegal drugs trade considering that during the much-heated 2016 presidential campaign, he proudly teased Duterte that he (Roxas) knew where illegal drugs are sourced from and sold in Davao City?
Or would he rather proceed with the status quo and leave it to the PNP whose top echelon during PNoy’s reign conveniently looked the other way because top generals were involved in protection rackets?
Would Mar, like PNoy’s indecisive handling of the Mamasapano massacre, just sit comfortably in his swivel chair and order media spins because the mainstream media are within his beck and call?
What if Sen. Grace Poe won the 2016 presidential polls? Would she call on her father’s movie comrades with crime-fighting skills to decide how to deal with the illegal drug menace? Or call on Coco Martin (whose heroic exploits in the telenovela ‘Probinsiyano’ as the cop Ricardo Dalisay have become legendary), to single-handedly capture – dead or alive – evasive drug lords?
Would Sen. Poe also gather around herself the same crime fighting skills depicted by her late father’s movie comrades to penetrate the Maute lairs and kill them all, one by one – including a hand to hand combat versus Isnilon Hapilon, the Maute brothers and their foreign jihadist-friends – ala Bruce Lee? Boy, lovely wouldn’t it be?
What if the importuned and jailed Sen. Leila De Lima were the one holding office by the Pasig River? Would she not summon her lover Ronnie Dayan, as her incognito presidential adviser, to compose a de facto council of drug lords confined at the Bilibid Prisons and negotiate for the temporary halt to the “marketing’ of the product until the issue is buried deep in the middle pages of the broadsheets and subsequently forgotten?
Would she not capably hale to court the still then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, through her appointed sycophant Justice Secretary, to lump upon him the charges that she herself has befallen?
Would she not also give the Davao City mayor company by including her accuser and jailer, DOJ Chief Vitaliano Aguirre, and label him also as a drug lord protector?
What if the late feisty Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago were president now, huh?
Would she not send all criminals to the gallows, including corrupt elected and appointed officials involved in shady deals like the Napoles PDAF scam, the under-the-table multi-million contracts on big ticket government projects?
Would she not also penalize and jail all those involved in the mishandling of billions of foreign funds meant for the thousands of grief-stricken Yolanda typhoon victims?
Would she not also declare martial law on the Marawi devastation? Would she have spared the rod and let the barbaric marauders go because the CHR and other international bodies are complaining about EJKs and human rights violations?
Would the late Madam Miriam be different from PRRD in tackling the messy Philippine situation left half-heartedly governed by the previous administration?
What if…? (Send your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) Matthew 6:33. GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
