Colors
"Roxas now doesn’t want to have anything to do with yellow."
I couldn’t believe what I was reading: Mar Roxas’ campaign manager, Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan, saying that the biggest mistake Mar did in the 2016 presidential campaign where he lost to then Davao City Mayor and now President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, was “to wear yellow.” Never again, Erice was quoted as saying, would we commit the same mistake of wearing yellow, which is why their campaign color now is blue. Oh my! There’s a thinning segment of the population that swears by the colors of Cory and PNoy. Is Egay Erice ditching the support of these voters as well? And by publicly eschewing yellow, and swearing to their “true” color of blue, is Egay Erice hoping that the Duterte supporters will embrace Mar? Perish the thought. Now comes a reaction from Kris Aquino, the former president’s outspoken sister, “queen of all media” and sought-after product endorser: “But really, to blame his loss on my brother? So, pati ba pagkatalo niya nung 2010 kasalanan din ni Noy? That pained cri de coeur from Kris brings back memories of the 2010 campaign where Noynoy became the standard bearer of the Liberal Party after the outpouring of grief over former President Cory Aquino’s death in 2009. Before that, Senator Mar Roxas was to be the LP standard-bearer in a multi-party contest for the presidency among the NP’s Manny Villar, the Lakas’ Gibo Teodoro, the NPC’s Chiz Escudero, and PMP’s Joseph Estrada. After Cory’s death and the emotional outpouring turned political tsunami it generated, Chiz gave way and folded tent. His partymate and expected vice presidential teammate, Loren Legarda eventually agreed to be Manny Villar’s VP. Gibo eventually got actor Edu Manzano. Mar, sometime in October 2009 and after much heartbreak, eventually settled for Noynoy’s running mate. And Erap got Makati Mayor Jojo Binay to team up with him. The early surveys in the last quarter of 2009 showed an impressive lead for the Noy-Mar tandem. Half of the nation’s voters would go for the LP tandem. Villar was getting only some 23 percent, Erap even less, and Gibo the least. Eventually Dick Gordon would wade in, with Lakas’ Bayani Fernando teaming up with him. But Villar’s creative advertising bombarded the air in that last quarter and even January of 2010, just before the start of the campaign in February. Meanwhile, the Liberals got complacent, came out with insipid ads bereft of any clear message, and acted like the war was won. In the surveys of end-January that came out the first week of February, Manny Villar’s high-stakes gambit paid off, and the Liberals were in panic. From sure winner, Noynoy was threatened, in fact statistically even-steven with Villar. 36 points for Noy and 34 points for Manny. From Feb.12 to mid-April of 2010, we had to work feverishly with Senator Serge Osmeña and volunteer brigades led by Maria Montelibano to stem the tide of a Villar marketing juggernaut. Holy Week of 2010, we had stemmed that tide. But something happened when we were all focused on Noynoy. Jojo Binay, given up for “dead” in his first excursion into national politics, silently crept into the national consciousness. Mar was in trouble.