12 years

That is how Filipinos should look at the presidency of  Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr., aka BBM.

As president, BBM should serve from noon of June 30, 2022 to noon of June 30, 2028, exactly six years.

But then, this is a President who won with an unprecedented mandate, the largest electoral win ever for a president since Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr.’s historic victory in 1969. With 31.629 million votes, BBM has the largest number of votes ever by any president.

BBM chalked up this record (according to a tally made by Albay Second District Congressman Joey Salceda):

• He won all regions, except Regions V (Bicol, home region of opposition presidential candidate Leni Robredo) and VI (Western Visayas).

• Largest vote share (59 percent) since Marcos Sr.’s reelection in 1969 (61 percent).

• Largest margin (32 percent) since Magsaysay (37 percent).

• The only majoritarian President since Marcos Sr.

The BBM mandate indicates two things: One, for the first time in more than half a century (53 years), the nation is united behind a single leader and two, his awesome mandate means the people believed in BBM’s promise of sweeping changes, for deep economic and social transformation.

Among those changes: Lick poverty for good (to less than 5 percent of the population from the present more than 26 percent); unify the nation and end divisive and debilitating politics; make Filipinos upper middle income; double infra spending to P9 trillion in six years from P4.5 trillion under Duterte and thus modernize the economy; make the Philippines march in cadence with the world’s most dynamic economies and vibrant democracies.

Such reforms cannot be achieved in six short years. Hence, the need for BBM to groom his successor, this early.  That successor is, of course, a relative.

We now must view then the Marcos Jr. presidency from the prism of 12 years, if not longer.

That is the only way to explain the startling political developments last week:

• The demotion or ouster of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the sole Senior Deputy Speaker of the 314-member House of Representatives.  The vote was taken 7:40 p.m. of May 17, 2023, with less than 20 congressmen physically present, and the principal protagonists were physically absent – Arroyo herself, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and the new Senior Deputy Speaker, Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr.  GMA’s ouster from a largely ceremonial  position was a coup attributed to Speaker Martin, who was silent like a Sphinx for four solid days before making a statement that surely incriminated him (he talked about nipping a coup in the bud).

• The resignation two days later, May 19, of Vice President Sara Duterte as chair of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democratic Party which launched her VP candidacy in May 2022.

It was a noisy resignation. Her leadership as VP, she said in effect, “cannot be poisoned by political toxicity or undermined by execrable political powerplay.”

Toxic means poison. Execrable means carabao dung. You don’t describe the politics of a ruling party in those disgraceful terms.

As if using toxic and execrable were not enough, Sara posted on Instagram, “Sa imong ambisyon, do not be tambaloslos” (“For your ambition, do not be like tambaloslos”).

According to usually unreliable Visayan and Bicolano folklore, tambaluslus is a wrinkled, dark colored, hairy creature with long, thin and wobbly legs, hooves and big joints, long arms and fingers, the mane of a horse from head to toe, a wide mouth, large vicious teeth, a penis as long as its height and large testicles with the diameter of an umbrella. It misleads people in the forest and rapes humans and animals.  Despite its huge penis and balls, the monster is largely powerless.

People speculated that Sara’s tambaloslos refers to Speaker Martin.

Martin, who was named after BBM’s father (FM, as in Ferdinand Martin), is infinitely a much more charismatic, likable and powerful person than the largest of the tambaloslos species.

Martin comes from a distinguished family of statesmen, jurists and politicians that predates the rise to power of then Ilocos Norte congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.

The Romualdezes come from a “holy” family. Their ancestors were Spanish priests and nuns on both sides.  They are no strangers to power and powerplays. Their playground was the highest echelons of politics and society.  Their terrain is Manila and Leyte. And yes, they know how to handle revolts and coups.

After People Power of 1986, the now legendary Romualdez wealth was practically intact, untouched by sequestration, politics and powerplays.

Before FM’s Imelda, the most famous of the Romualdezes was Daniel Zialcita Romualdez. He was speaker from 1957 to 1962. Imelda is a cousin of Daniel.

According to Wikipedia, Daniel Romualdez’s father was Don Miguel Lopez Romualdez, assemblyman for Leyte and mayor of Manila during World War II. His mother was Brigida Zialcita of Manila.

Daniel Romualdez’s father was the second of the three sons of Trinidad “Tidad” Lopez, eldest daughter of Spanish friar Don Francisco Lopez of Granada, Spain (later of Burauen, Leyte), and Daniel Romuáldez of Pandacan, Manila, a tuberculosis survivor and cabeza de barangay. His paternal grandfather Daniel was owner of the Malacañang Gardens, the huge expanse of land dedicated to entertaining guests of Philippine presidents.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Norberto Romualdez was Daniel’s uncle. Another uncle, Dean Vicente Orestes Romuáldez y Lopez, was the father of Imelda Marcos and grandfather of the current Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez. Romualdez’s great-grandfather was involved in the Sumuroy Revolt but narrowly escaped Spanish execution when he was allowed by David Dulay to visit his ailing mother.

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