The new AlDub

Unlike either of the halves of AlDub, this new phenomenon isn’t quite good-looking, doesn’t have dimples and doesn’t have the talent for Dubsmash.

And yet, in record time, he has attracted multitudes and has broken records of his own. In March, he wasn’t even the front-runner in the presidential polls of May 2016. But if elections were held today and if surveys are anywhere as accurate as they were in the last presidential elections (they were), Rodrigo Duterte — pockmarks (literally and figuratively, and the list of pockmarks is long) and all — will be our next President.

If that isn’t a phenomenon, I don’t know what is.

And yet…

AlDub (Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza) will mark their first anniversary as a reel couple this July nowhere near the peak they scaled in October last year, when they filled up the Philippine Arena in Bulacan to the rafters, breaking Twitter records with 41 million tweets. In December they were still hot. Early this year, the number of tweets dwindled to at most one million a day. Today, I doubt if they can still fill up the Philippine Arena to the rafters. AlDoubt.

Because that is the way shooting stars go. First they are ablaze, then they flicker in the dark. They may remain popular, but not with the same fiery intensity that bedazzled and baffled their universe at the height of their inexplicable popularity. You know someone’s popularity is baffling if you have everyone and his cousin trying to explain it — from sociologists to manicurists.

Digong Duterte’s rise is extraordinary. Why else is everyone trying to unravel it? But can he sustain the public’s fascination with him and his tough talk softened by his provinciano charm? The kanto boy language also attracts shrieking fans, just like the real kanto boys get the pretty girls on the block. At the moment, Duterte comes across as the protector of the damsel in distress — the damsel in distress being the Philippines. The more people try douse his fire, the more he shines in the surveys.

But when the split-screen romance between Duterte and the Filipino people (how many have actually met him?) is over, and both finally come face to face, will it be the same? Will his fans still fill up the arena, so to speak?

They may, they may not. He may be more than a split-screen phenomenon. But those who vote for him just have to be certain that their belief in him transcends the first 100 days of the birth of the phenomenon that he is. Because while the country can survive the rise and fall (if it does fall) of the AlDub phenomenon, it might not survive the rise and fall (if it does fall) of the Duterte phenomenon when the guy is permanently on the split screen of their lives for the next six years.

* * *

The STAR has had roundtable discussions with the four of the five candidates aspiring for the presidency of the land. The fifth candidate, Rodrigo Duterte, will be on the hot seat tomorrow, and it promises to be either: 1. An eye-opener that will make me re-think my views or 2. An affirmation of what I had just written above.

The first to bravely walk into the lion’s den, er, the roundtable discussions, was Vice President Jojo Binay. I was out of town and unable to attend the discussion. One thing I distinctly remember about Binay is how we would always see each other at Ninoy Aquino’s death anniversary Masses through thick and thin (read: whether the Aquinos were in power or not, except for the last couple of years). Once, I remarked, “We (referring to the people who would religiously attend the Masses) haven’t changed, no matter the administration.” To which Binay replied, “We should never change.” Did he mean never change our values even for political expediency or never change our deep-down loyalties? I leave that up to you to fathom.

The next candidate to attend the roundtable discussion was former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas. He stayed for three hours (from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), was visibly tired but never lost the energy to answer the difficult questions and to explain his answers in detail, with absolute clarity. I asked him, “Do you need to be once poor in order to understand and solve poverty?” And he told me, “If you were a doctor, do you need to be a diabetic in order to cure someone who has diabetes?”

Mar’s grasp of the issues, the problems, the problems beneath the problems, is amazing and he knows it. Mapapahanga ka talaga. He already has the solutions to the ills besetting the country. What Mar has to prove to many who already believe in him but have reservations, is: if he becomes Chief Executive, can he execute these solutions to the problems?

Excerpts from the discussion:

Short-term priorities:

I will start the move to Clark ASAP and first step is a high-speed train system.

How will you deal with red tape in government?

I was very serious when I said I would create a department of common sense. I will have people whose sole purpose is to look at antiquated rules, regulations procedures that may have been relevant 20 years ago but are no longer applicable now.

The traffic jam and the problems with the MRT???

One of our difficulties has been we plan for the next three years, we plan for the current problem. So if we have traffic now, let’s build an extra lane, or let’s build one elevated highway, because that’s our current problem. And by the time we finish our solution, the problem has enlarged so it’s still a problem. So my approach is going to be, we plan and construct for 10 years from now, to 20-year horizons. I will bid out franchises and eliminate the passenger quota system for PUV drivers, giving them fixed pay.

We’re going to have 48 train sets (of three). The first ones have already arrived. The next three or four train sets will be delivered every month beginning in the middle of this year. I was one of the first public servants, when I was at DTI, to ride the MRT because I live in Cubao. I ride the MRT, I get off at Buendia and walk to DTI in Buendia, so I know this problem. Now we have to build the next MRT. The need never stops, we just have to keep investing.

Port congestion?

One of the things that’s quite important is to encourage shipments to go to both Batangas, which is only I think at 30 percent utilization, and to Clark. But it’s a chicken and egg situation. Why do ships want to come to Manila? (Because Manila has) the most modern equipment. Why don’t they want to go to Batangas? Because it’s not as efficient and as fast as MICT. Why will (MICT) invest there? There are no ships. Why are there no ships? Because we are not investing there. 65 percent of all cargo that comes into Manila is consumer, not industrial goods. And that’s why ships and forwarders and transporters don’t like to send to Batangas and Subic, because the consumers are not there.

Our solution is get them to an elevated highway so industrial goods can get to NLEX and SLEX .

Will you give priority to Tourism???

Absolutely! The biggest incentive is building infrastructure like airports and providing Internet connectivity. I can double tourist arrivals to 10 to 12 million in six years.

What is the state of the country you’re inheriting?

Let me use the collective assessment of the world, that what was once the sick man of Asia is now Asia’s bright star, and so it is up to us to make that star to live up to its potential…translate that to jobs and hope for a better future.

That’s what the election is all about — not who has the best sound bite or patutsada or make you laugh. That is what at stake and who can really make it happen.

(On Thursday: Two hours of Grace; Duterte up close.)

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)