Mar “Saved” My Day

Sen. Mar Roxas triggered a political tremor when he retreated to the sidelines to give way to Sen. Noynoy Aquino’s march to Malacanang, to claim the post once held by his mother, the late Cory Aquino. In doing so, Roxas dashed, at least for now, his own hopes of following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Manuel Roxas, as Philippine President. The reactions have been mixed, many viewed his move as a supreme political sacrifice, a few others are more skeptical and have since then been reading tea leaves to find ill motives in his decision. On his Facebook wall, Roxas reiterated that “my personal ambition ends where my loyalty and love for my country begins.” As president of the Liberal Party, Mar had been widely seen as the heir presumptive to the throne of standard bearer of his party. For a while he had been releasing trial balloons to gauge public reaction to his bid for the country’s highest office. Then the infomercials, or what Susan Ople fondly dubbed “those silly padyak ads”, followed, all geared to shore up his popularity and name recall. The efforts have been slowly but surely chiseling Mar’s profile in the minds and hearts of voters who are heading to the polls to choose the next president in eight months. For some time, the way to Malacanang seemed to be getting paved for Mar. But the roadmap got blurry when Mrs. Aquino died last month. Yellow fever once more gripped the nation whose heart has been broken to pieces by the passing of a beloved leader. Mrs. Aquino’s death somehow gave birth to a palpable and urgent clamor to send her only son, Noynoy, back to Malacanang, this time as President. I won’t render judgment as to what prompted Mar to sacrifice his own quest for the presidency from my narrow view half a world away. But I can say that by stepping aside in favor of Noynoy, Mar won more support and sympathy than doubts and skepticism. It unveiled a side of Mar that I had seen almost a decade ago, one that is quick to lend a hand to help another person realize a dream, or in my case 10 years ago to do my job. It happened right here in the United States in the summer of 2000. Then President Joseph Estrada was here for an official working visit that took him to Washington D.C., San Francisco and New York. I was covering the former President in my capacity as Officer-In-Charge of Malacanang’s Presidential News Desk. Mar was part of the official delegation as Secretary of Trade and Industry. We were at the Blair House across from the White House following Mr. Estrada’s meeting with then Pres. Bill Clinton. A press conference was about to unfold but I was running behind. Some last minute instructions from then Press Secretary Ricardo “Dong” Puno held me back a few precious minutes. A swollen sea of media people had flooded my way, drowning any chance I had of finding a seat within hearing distance of the press briefing. So I braced myself for a torturous coverage. I strained my neck, I tried to will my ears to perform like equipment used in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) projects that seek to listen for radio signals from possible civilizations on distant planets. The only thing that mattered to me at that time was to be able to hear the President’s answers to quizzes fielded by the media people amid the din assaulting my senses. But I was losing the battle. Then salvation came. I felt a tap on my shoulder, I looked behind me and there he was, Mar, carrying a chair and offering it to me. Such gesture of kindness is hard to forget even if the years could blur many memories. The toll of the presidential coverage had left me as tired as a beast of burden at the end of a very long day. My knees were ready to fold under me. That chair, at that moment, felt like a sanctuary where weariness or weakness had no place. That chair helped me do my job that day, thanks to Mar. Even with his presidential bid in the back burner at the moment, Mar has many happy days ahead of him and his bride-to-be, Korina Sanchez. Of course nothing is set in stone when it comes to politics. Alliances shift all the time, voters are fickle, and politicians who are today’s flavor of the month could suffer a meltdown on the way to the polls. The Noynoy fever could fizzle out. Should that happen, Mar hopefully is not far behind and would be ready to catch the LP standard from Noynoy’s hands. He would save the day for the LP, just as he did mine many years ago.