Binay is a *very* good politician.

If we decide that 'politician' means 'political tactician'.

How could he be anything else? More than two decades as mayor of Makati (did you honestly think he let his wife govern by herself?), winning each and every time regardless of the mandate of the people?

Anyway, before the recently-concluded elections, there were rumors of his running for president. I'm willing to bet anything it was nothing more than a smokescreen: Binay's much too good the politician to do something that stupid.

The vice-presidency is the highest he ever set his eyes on, this early in the game. Why? Because it's much, much harder to rig the presidency, compared to the vice-presidency. Plus, there are benefits to being the vice-president first.

For one thing, being VP makes it a lot easier to rig a presidential election. Secondly, being VP first will lend credibility to the idea of his winning a presidential election. And third, he might even legitimately win—all he has to do is keep his head down.

In the Philippines, unlike in some countries, vice presidents are hardly ever heard from. Voters judge a VP's performance not on what they've done during their term, but on the number of scandals they've managed to get themselves in. (Sure, you get brownie points for doing good stuff—it's just not as important as you'd think.)

It might be hard to believe, and I've got no hard evidence to show, but if you're a Filipino, it's highly likely that you're nodding your head when you read that last paragraph and maybe even muttering "Yeah, that's true."

So, to become the next president, Binay knows he only has to shut the hell up for the next 5 years or so.

I've got until then to prepare for immigration. To EnZed, maybe—I hear there's a booming Filipino community there. Or to Nova Scotia, where I've always said I wanted to go.