KrisTek: Kris Aquino & Herbert Bautista in love, why not?

I love romance. I’m a sucker for it. I love it so much. — Drew Barrymore

There is no shame in my saying that we all want to be loved by someone. — Sean Penn                                             

Are some of us becoming cynics about love in the 21st century, especially with celebrities here and abroad changing their love partners as quickly as they change their shoes or hairdos? Isn’t “happily ever after” still possible?

Years ago I wrote in this column that political scion Mar Araneta Roxas would have been the ideal guy for Kris Aquino, not only romantically and intellectually, but also politically. Just last year before the senate election at a dinner of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, I told his smart younger brother and now Congressman Lino Cayetano that he should court Kris.

Though it didn’t happen in real life, just after the military-backed 1986 EDSA uprising, the late banker and playwright Bienvenido “Boy” Noriega, Jr. wrote his wildly successful play Bongbong at Kris about the unlikely romance between deposed President Ferdinand Marcos’s son Bongbong and the new President Cory Aquino’s daughter Kris.

More over, KathNiel (Kathleen Bernardo and Daniel Padilla) and KimXi (Kim Chiu and Xian Lim) — the newest popular love team of the Philippines has just been christened by netizens as “KrisTek.” The budding romance between Kris Aquino and Quezon City Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista is the new national buzz.

I think that Kris and Herbert, both now legally single and both deserving of personal happiness beyond just their socioeconomic and political successes, would make an ideal married couple. Why? Here are some reasons.

1. Kris and Herbert make media, and columnists like me, happy. Kris and Herbert are among the top newsmakers in the Philippines and their now dating each other is interesting to many people. 

Instead of non-stop pork barrel controversy or other problems, instead of so much dire news about our republic getting entangled in superpower rivalries or isle disputes, the emerging “KrisTek” love story proves the Department of Tourism’s slogan is true: “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” Smile, abangan ang susunod na kabanata!

2. Kris and Herbert are genuinely good parents. Both Kris and Herbert have a good track record of loving their children, which could make them an ideal couple to care for each other’s kids, and even for their own possible future children.

My former Ateneo de Manila University classmate Eloisa Matias, who has two children with Mayor Herbert Bautista and was former executive producer of Sharon Cuneta Pangilinan’s former TV show Sharon, which the mayor co-hosted, once mentioned to me that Bautista is a good and responsible father. Even critics of Kris Aquino acknowledge that she has consistently been a responsible and good single mom to her two sons.

3. Herbert Bautista is an ideal political partner to Kris. Whether Kris admits it or not, politics is already in her genes and I believe all her years of excelling in and building up her financial security via showbiz are merely a prelude to her eventual grand entry into politics.

Kris as national politician would benefit from having an intelligent spouse who not only understands politics, but can ideally be her political partner and even confidant. The actor and former youth leader Herbert Bautista not only has a positive public image as political leader, he also has the political prowess to boost any future political plans of Kris, and vice versa as well.

4. Both Herbert and Kris have a sense of humor. I think that since both Herbert and Kris are active in the topsy-turvy worlds of politics and showbiz, it is quite important that both of them are known to have a good sense of humor.

I recall then Tarlac Congressman Noynoy Aquino once telling me that humor is important in politics or else one would go crazy. The ability of Herbert and Kris to laugh — even about themselves — not only helps endear them to the public; the ability to laugh at things will also help keep both of them happy as well as grounded.

5. KrisTek can prove that second or third chances in love are possible. After so many ups and downs in her star-crossed relationships with guys, will Kris finally settle down with her ideal guy? What about the never-married Mayor Herbert Bautista? Is Kris the woman who will finally turn him into a husband?

Not a few people are dubious, claiming that their romance is just a blockbuster political alliance. However. the incurable romantic in this writer wishes them both well and I’m waiting to see if their quest for love will finally be possible this time around. Why not?

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