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Oops! Perhaps, the more proper question should have
been—should the public be concerned with the love life of
presidential wannabes? However, Sen. Mar Roxas inevitably comes to
the fore in any discussion of this issue because he is the only
bachelor among the 2010 “presidential timbers, presidential
lumbers, presidential driftwoods, presidential toothpicks and
presidential acrobats,” to use the colorful words of Sen. Joker
Arroyo.
Mar may not like any public
discussion of his love life although his affair with ABS-CBN
broadcaster Korina Sanchez is well known throughout the country.
This can’t be helped even if he does not like it because his
romance with Sanchez is getting prominence on the airlanes. Maybe,
he already knows that many callers during Ms. Sanchez’s radio
program “Tambalang Faylon at Sanchez” over dzmm often describe
her as “First Lady,” which noticeably titillates her no end.
The popular radio programs of Ms.
Sanchez could really come in handy in any election campaign,
assuming that ABS-CBN would allow her to do so. In fairness to her,
she has not been reading press statements coming from Mar, which is
aplenty because he has a stable of prodigious and excellent writers.
This does not mean that she is completely taking her hands off the
issues he had raised. A legislator who had questioned the Cheaper
Medicine Bill of Mar moaned when he came under scorching attack from
her in her radio program: “Why should she attack me when I am not
a presidentiable? She should get off the microphone and I will
debate with her,” the legislator from Iloilo said.
Many of my politician-friends are
predicting that Mar’s being single would be a campaign issue
should he remain as such until 2010. Of course, Sen. Noynoy Aquino
is not among those who believe this should be an issue.
Incidentally, Senator Noynoy, just like Mar, is also a bachelor.
Butch Abad quips that Noynoy would remain a bachelor as long as
President Cory is alive. But I am digressing.
The wife of a politician plays an
important role in his career. The country was enamored when then
37-year-old Rep. Ferdinand Marcos married Imelda Marcos. Jacqueline
Kennedy made the tenure of John Kennedy at the White House more
colorful and more memorable. Then, there are women who jeopardized
what should have been an otherwise very promising career. As a
hard-hitting broadcast journalist, would Ms. Sanchez feel at ease
when some politicians go to Mar for some favors? Would she feel
comfortable in the company of persons she had criticized, should Mar
need their campaign support? Or, would those politicians forget the
slight they had suffered from her and back Mar to the hilt?
Macho politics
It may be a quirk in Philippine
politics that the indiscretions of married politicians seldom become
campaign issues. Some may make fun of the sexual preferences of some
candidates but never of their extra-marital activities. In 2004, a
senatorial candidate lost mainly because he was charged with rape by
a man. Somebody said he would have won had he been charged with rape
by a woman.
In a congressional district, the
incumbent sired a baby from a nurse and then refused to recognize
the child. In other countries, this should been a capital issue but
not in the Philippines. His main rival did not even mention the
issue in the campaign.
In the 1992 presidential
elections, a candidate suddenly left for abroad because a son out of
wedlock was reportedly in emotional distress. The candidate was
described as ramrod-straight and his sudden departure would have
debunked this description. However, none of his rivals made capital
out of his predicament.
President Erap has many
common-law wives but this was never made an issue against him.
Rather, it may have helped enhance his macho image, which is greatly
admired in the country. A voter explained why he ignored Erap’s
having many wives in voting for him: “That is the problem of Mrs.
Estrada, not of the country.”
Foreign debts addendum
In my special report on foreign
debt that came out in the Sunday Times on Jan. 20, I failed to
mention Sen. Pia Cayetano among the senators who want to control the
incurring of foreign debt. Pia has made health and environment her
primary concern but she has many strong views on other subjects,
like foreign debt.
Pia wants lawmakers to have more
power to scrutinize the payment for debts, but this is not possible
as long as its automatic appropriation is in the statute books. Just
like Senate President Manny Villar and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Pia
wants to repeal the provision of Presidential Decree 1177 issued by
former President Marcos that automatically appropriated all debt
payments.
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