“Mr. President.”
“Of what society?”
That was Sen. Mar Roxas’ greeting, and Sen. Noynoy Aquino’s response as he arrived for dinner the other night at the White House, the sprawling compound of the owners of the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City.
Noynoy had driven over to Mar’s home from Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan, where he had told the nation that he needed time for “discernment and divine guidance” on whether or not he should seek the presidency in 2010.
Mar achieved his discernment earlier in the week, when he called a press conference to announce that he was abandoning his quest for the nation’s highest office to give way to the only son of Benigno and Corazon Aquino.
Two scions of prominent clans, namesakes of famous men. Still bachelors after half a century, and both attached to their mothers. Until last week, one was seen as a supporter of the other’s presidential plans. On Tuesday they switched roles. What happened?
Mar
Discernment for Mar Roxas started in a funeral cortege, as he surveyed the crowd that lined the streets to bid farewell to Cory Aquino last month. It was the EDSA I spirit, returned to life.
“It made a mark,” Mar told me the other night. “You saw that there was a clamor for change.”
The mammoth outpouring of public affection triggered calls for Noynoy Aquino to run for president. But Mar recalled Noynoy saying in public at the time that the Liberal Party already had a candidate. Mar left it at that.
Over the next two weeks, however, various quarters intensified their calls for Noynoy to seek the presidency. One day he was reported to have said that if his supporters wore yellow, it would mean they were serious in their calls.
In the course of their talks, about the need for reforms and the right course for the nation, Noynoy let on that it was his late parents’ fight and he was prepared to respond to the challenge. Mar – to borrow the word of the day – discerned that Noynoy “was open to a draft.”
“I am not going to stand in the way,” Mar told me. “I want to give every chance, every opportunity para mabuo yung reform forces. The reform forces will succeed only if they are united.”
Last Saturday night, and then from late Sunday afternoon until evening, Mar talked one-on-one with Noynoy. Over dinner last Monday, with only one other person present, he told Noynoy he would not stand in his way.
Mar later announced his decision to his fiancée, Korina Sanchez, and his family. “Hindi tayo trapo. Ito yung pangangailangan ng bansa (We are not traditional politicians. This is what the nation needs),” he told them.
“Do what’s in your heart. Do what you think is right,” he recalled Korina telling him.
Mom Judy invoked the memory of his father, Sen. Gerry Roxas, and brother, the late Capiz Congressman Dinggoy, and told him: “I know you will make us proud, whatever you decide.”
At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Mar woke up from a fitful sleep and drafted his speech on the toughest decision of his life. Hours later he was with Noynoy again for lunch, giving the outline of his speech.
At 6 p.m., Mar announced his decision to the nation. Korina mouthed “I love you” while Judy and his sister Ria said, “We’re proud of you.”
“This morning I woke up and maaliwalas ang kalooban ko,” Mar told me. “What else is there in life kundi yung respeto at pagtingin ng tao?”
Noynoy
Amid his grief over his mother’s death, Noynoy Aquino went to the Music One branch near their Times Street home in Quezon City.
A grade schooler spotted him and approached him, elated to meet Noynoy, brother of Kris. The boy, whose mother worked in the music store, followed Noynoy around, then asked him to autograph a CD of Pinoy rapper Aries Pollisco, a.k.a. Gloc-9. When the pen would not write on the CD’s cellophane cover, the boy handed Noynoy a piece of paper and asked him to write on it.
If even a young boy wanted his autograph, Noynoy thought, there might be something to the stories coming out, urging him to continue his parents’ fight for a better country.
Opinion columns and several groups started urging him to run for president in 2010. There were messages on text, email and Twitter. Recently, as he entered the Legend Chinese restaurant in Pasay City, people stood up and applauded.
When Noynoy told those egging him on to wear yellow if they wanted him to run for president, they did, and launched a signature campaign.
The significance of the enormous crowd at his mother’s wake and funeral was not lost on Noynoy. Only recently, people were saying that Filipinos had become apathetic, he said.
But there are other people, led by his four sisters, who are advising Noynoy to tread carefully.
“If this is real, we cannot rush the process,” he told me the other night. “There is the potential, but I have to validate it.”
He is realistic enough to consider that the clamor for him to run could be coming from only a few, and that the groundswell could not translate into enough votes by the time May 2010 rolls around.
Yesterday Noynoy kicked off his process of discernment with visits to the cities of Davao and Zamboanga. His next stop will be his home province of Tarlac.
Noynoy is an extremely reluctant candidate, stressing that he has never aspired to become president. Many times in recent weeks, he has asked himself: “Is there another way, can we channel this people power to reform society without my being a candidate? Mahirap umoo eh. Talagang hindi ko naman inambisyon ito.”
“Pag wala, if there is no other alternative, we have to step up to the plate,” he told me.
So unprepared is he for high office in 2010 that he hasn’t even arranged his thoughts yet on what he might do if he wins the presidency.
But the prospect of continuing his parents’ legacy, of continuing an unfinished revolution, can be irresistible.
Both he and Mar see 2010 as a battle between the forces of good and evil.
If he refuses to fight, Noynoy said, he should just “put up or shut up.”
Both he and Mar think that if they don’t accept the challenge, they could spend the rest of their lives asking themselves with regret, “What if?”