Who’s afraid of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.? Well, only President Noynoy Aquino and his entire administration, that’s who.
One of my most reliable palace informants gave me a picture of just how panicked the Aquino administration has become over the surge of the younger Marcos in the polls, to the point where the former strongman’s son is now tied with the longtime frontrunner in the vice presidential derby, Senator Chiz Escudero. He (or she) called me yesterday to relay the news:
“You’ve heard about Plan B, right?” he (or she) asked, to which I said yes. “Well, it’s no longer limited to the presidential contest; because of the showing of BBM [Marcos], there’s a Plan B for the vice presidential race now, as well.”
I guess I can call it “Plan B.1” now, I said, only half-jokingly. So the other shoe—or the other rubber slipper, if you will—will drop, then?
“That’s the plan, exactly,” my source explained a bit impatiently, like I was just entering the K-12 program. “Leni [Robredo] is now as dead as Mar [Roxas].”
You’re pulling my once-broken leg, I said. But the President was just with Mar-Leni, campaigning for them in one of the sorties of the Liberal Party that finally pushed through just today, I said.
“So, you’ve heard of that also,” my source said, ratcheting the patronizing tone down one notch. “Then you already know that the LP has not been scheduling campaign sorties to the provinces of late?”
Yes, I said. I’ve heard that even the LP candidates for the Senate are getting restless.
They’re not getting any funding support from Mar or his mom Judy anymore and the provincial sorties are cancelled as soon as they are scheduled. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
“It’s worse, really,” he (or she) said. “The Balay is so quiet these days, like someone died.”
Well, in a sense, someone did, I quipped. But tell me about Plan B.1: It’s gotten that desperate?
“It’s not funny,” my palace source said. “Bongbong is surging even if we’ve practically tailor-made the Edsa celebration to bring him down, even if the friendly media is attacking him, his father and his whole family every day.”
So, it’s Chiz? But why, apart from winnability?
My source shifted to haughty mode back again. You know, the studied haciendero “buhay pa naman kayo” tone that they know so well from watching the Boss.
“Are you stupid or are you just really, really slow?” the source said. “Don’t you even know how far back the President and Chiz go? Those two are even closer than the President and Grace.”
OK, OK, I said. Don’t get your yellow panties—or boxer shorts or whatever you’re wearing—in a bunch, I advised him (or her).
“But I feel sorry for Leni, really,” my source said finally. “Now we have to tell her that she’s probably not really ready for the big time yet; maybe even promise her a Senate seat next time, if all goes well with our Plan B combo.”
Good luck with that, I said. Then the line went dead.
* * *
So I PM’d a good friend in the Leni camp to relay the news to him/her. Only it wasn’t news to him—or her—anymore.
“We already know,” said the card-carrying member of the Havaianas Chapter of the Tsinelas Gang. “And there’s nothing we can do about it.”
You mean there’s no way you can stop Aquino from publicly declaring his love for Leni while secretly backing Chiz? Is there anything that can be done, like demanding that Aquino not be so two-faced?
“Can you jack up our ratings to at least 20 percent?” he (or she) said. “We’ve been basically told to go up that high, double-quick, or we can’t count on Malacanang’s support anymore.”
Oh, so you’ve been presented with the Roxas Challenge, too. If Mar can do it, so can you, I said, encouragingly.
“We could if we had more support, so it’s really a chicken-and-egg deal,” my Leni backer said. “But how can we go as high and as fast as BBM, who doesn’t even have any television commercials and who was in single-digits just late last year?”
I don’t know, I confessed. But that’s why they pay you the big bucks, heh heh.
I got a “seen” on my message screen. But no smiley, and that was the end of that.
So I texted my friend Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz (a name, at last!) and congratulated him not only for the panic his candidate Marcos was causing in the palace but also for being recently appointed the senator’s campaign manager. I was corrected yet again.
“I’m just a campaign adviser to BBM,” Jonat said. “If I became campaign manager, people might start asking me for money.”
OK, I said. But what about Plan B.1?
“Magandang pag-usapan yan,” he said. I can’t wait.