Election MARVELs

Just a few months before the national elections in 1998, I saw on TV a news report about a psychic in the 1960's who predicted that the initials of the next 6 Philippine presidents would be (in the following order) M, A, R, V, E and L--which all form the wonderful word MARVEL. Until 1998, this prediction seemed true. The Presidents from 1965 to 1998 were (Ferdinand) Marcos, (Corazon) Aquino and (Fidel) Ramos, their initials forming the first half of MARVEL. But the prediction was finally disproven when Joseph Estrada won the presidency in 1998.

I’m guessing that the MARVEL prediction was fate’s way of telling us (or the psychic who saw it coming) that we would have MARVELous years of progress ahead. If so, what was the implication when MARVEL was cut short and replaced by “MARE” (Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Estrada)? Did that mean that the MARVELs would be replaced by nightMAREs? Uh-oh! This can’t be good! First, the last 44 years had already proven to be nightmarish! Second, and worse, it seems like we’re in for another nightMARE! The current president, who also happens to be the successor of Estrada, is Gloria Macapagal. If we are to believe the surveys, the next president would probably be Noynoy Aquino. If his administration doesn’t mess up (the way Gloria Macapagal’s did), his successor would likely be MAR Roxas. And unless a new breed of bright, young and charismatic politicians emerges within the next 12 years, MAR’s successor might just be Francis Escudero. Macapagal, Aquino, Roxas and Escudero. That’s another MARE for you!

Now, before we worry about the next nightMARE, let’s go back to MARVEL. Thinking about the elections next year, I can’t help but wonder if that 1960’s psychic really had his vision right or he just confused six presidencies for one election. When he saw the word MARVEL, was he really trying to foresee the next 4 decades or did he erroneously look into the year 2010? Come to think of it. The year 2010 has MARVEL written all over it! Aside from Gilbert Teodoro (who’s a pitifully weak presidential candidate), can you think of any strong/winnable presidential candidate who has an initial outside of MARVEL? If elections push through in 2010, the persons most likely to become president next year are (A) Aquino, (R) Roxas, (V)Manny Villar, (E) Escudero and Estrada, and (L)Loren Legarda. If elections do not push through, on the other hand, we’ll be stuck with a dictator named Macapagal (Is this irony or just cruel historical poetry? The star of “Hello Garci!” and the chief executioner of Andres Bonifacio were both named MACAPAGAL!). If Bro. Eddie Villanueva and Panfilo Lacson decide to run, there would be another two MARVEL candidates joining the presidential race in 2010. If Raul Roco hadn’t died of cancer a few years ago, he’d also be a strong MARVEL candidate next year.

Interestingly, the MARVEL charm doesn’t seem to be limited to the presidency. Who are he strongest candidates for vice president in 2010? Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (I hope I’m wrong about the ‘strongest’ part.), Edu Manzano, MAR Roxas, Bong Revilla and Loren Legarda. There’s also Vilma Santos, who’s certainly more known as Vilma than Ms. Santos. She might also use the monicker “Ate Vi”.


Does Jejomar Binay stand a chance? Who knows? Baka nabulol lang ang tadhana! (Maybe fate just happened to be speech-impaired!). Maybe when fate was whispering its secrets to the that psychic 4 decades ago, it was really trying to say “MARBEL!” but ended up blurting out “MARVEL!”. (Ah, remember our lovely grade school teachers who taught us about “Frime Pactors”?). There you go! There’s a “B” in MARVEL, uh, I mean MARBEL!

Before I go too far, let me remind everybody that the elections are still six months away. So who are we to predict the future? There’s still a lot of time for weak candidates to radically alter their campaign strategies. And still a lot of time for the voters to get to know Vayani, Vinay and giVo! Right?