GENERAL SANTOS CITY –  Whether his close friend and preferred presidential candidate wins or not in the elections next year, Sarangani governor Miguel Rene Dominguez has already emerged as a powerful broker in Philippine politics.

Considered a maverick in Philippine politics steeped in the tradition of patronage and seniority, the 32-year old governor has forced the hands of veteran politicians allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo into endorsing Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as presidential bet of the administration for next year’s May 10 general elections.

Three months ago, the political fortune of Teodoro was fast draining into the sink as big as the Pasig River.

It was Dominguez who resuscitated his presidential ambition by spontaneously supporting the candidacy of the embattled defense chief during a meeting of provincial governors.

While Teodoro has a lot of catching up to do in the opinion polls, his eventual endorsement by the coalition government of the Arroyo administration has raised his political stock.  

Dominguez has steadily climbed into the ladder of national politics and has also caught the attention of the diplomatic community.

He became the only local executive from Mindanao to be invited fellow by the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowships early this year.

Foreign grants have been pouring in the province ever since he was elected the second youngest governor in 2004.

First elected governor at the age of 26, Dominguez has slowly risen to become focal point of local government executives trying to make a dent in Philippine politics.
He has taken the mantle as Mindanao’s most influential political figure – matching only Davao City’s Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in popularity.

Last week, he was entertaining going all in the campaign for Teodoro days after he summoned the mayors of Zamboanga del Norte where Teodoro was supposed to hold a political meeting.

His conviction for the defense chief was not just borne out of friendship.
“When my province suffered from flash floods and other calamities, it was Teodoro who brought in relief assistance.  When we were attacked by rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), it was Gibo (Teodoro’s nickname) who sent reinforcements of government soldiers to help secure our province.  I owe it to him.  We (in the province) owe it to him,” he explained.

Dominguez looks up to Teodoro as his older brother that he never had.

Both are intelligent and came from rich and powerful families.  Both were educated, at one point, in the United States and both sport an immaculately clean slate as politicians.

With Teodoro not yet even 45 years old, both he and Dominguez represent a new breed of political leaders who made it entirely on their own and went against the established norms of Philippine political clans.

Dominguez himself has emerged as a man all by himself, going against the leanings of his father Paul Rene and uncle Carlos Dominguez, who are both publicly identified with another presidential candidate Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III, a cousin of his presidential contender friend Gibo.

On Friday, Dominguez further raised the ante in announcing the preference of governors for Senator Loren Legarda as running mate of Teodoro – again defying conventional wisdom and shaking the Arroyo coalition – over Interior Secretary Ronald Pun.  Legarda, a former TV broadcast personality, is a critique of the government and has been courted by several presidential contenders.

Dominguez, who announced the development, said the governors have agreed to push for a continuation of the alliance between Lakas-Kampi-CMD, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

Legarda is being groomed as running mate of NPC’s Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero who has declared his intention to run for president.

Should this potential heavyweight tandem materializes over the preference of the leadership of the Arroyo administration, Dominguez’s political fortune could zoom to greater heights.

For a young man who has yet to tie the knot, such national prominence has been seen only once in Philippine politics.

That was in the 1960s when the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., barely out of his 20’s, challenged the constitutionality of age prohibition for senatorial candidates.
Needless to say, Ninoy ran and won a seat in the Philippine Senate and went on to become the most vocal critic of the then emerging dictatorial rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Dominguez could be following the same path, albeit via the most non-traditional route.

While national political figures earned their spurs by basing in the national capital region, Dominguez is launching his from the south.

For a youthful politician who once told a magazine that he dreamt of becoming the president of the Philippines one day, next year’s election may be his early rite of passage towards becoming the most powerful person in the country.