An unintended admission is often the most honest. And the most revealing. And reelectionist senator Bam Aquino just did so without probably realizing, even to this day, that he has just admitted to something more interesting than he would have cared to admit.
In a conversation with The Philippine STAR's Marichu Villanueva, which the newspaper associate editor narrated in her column last Monday, Aquino reportedly admitted he and the rest of the Liberal Party's eight-man senatorial slate are having difficulty breaking into winning circle of 12 in most credible surveys.
Villanueva quoted Aquino as saying "I must admit there is a struggle." And why is this so? Villanueva says Aquino believes the viciousness of attacks by trolls on social media has affected his and his team's standings. Worse, the trolls have been traced to alleged pro-Marcos groups.
Okay, so what Aquino is saying is that Marcos trolls are succeeding in what they do, and are in fact so successful that it has become quite a struggle for him and his team to even crack the magic circle of 12. In admitting his and his team's difficulties to Villanueva as a result of the Marcos trolls' "viciousness," Aquino may have intended to paint such trolls in a bad light.
What Aquino dead not realize is that, in so doing, he inadvertently admitted the strength of the Marcos forces, regardless of whether or not they are really trolls. Moreover, Aquino also inadvertently admitted that the message contained in the attacks, vicious or not, and spread by trolls or not, must be sufficiently credible as to effectively make it a struggle for him and his team.
No Filipino is ever going to admit he is a fool. That being the case, let us presume all Filipinos to be intelligent enough to make the right decisions when presented with a choice. On the other hand, trolls are among the most reviled entities in cyberspace, even though they can remain faceless, if not forever, then at least for a great length of time.
To admit, therefore, that trolls are making even intelligent Filipinos think twice about Aquino and his team is to consequently admit, albeit inadvertently, that the Marcos message is far more credible, and thus way stronger, than the supposed values and virtues upon which the "Yellow Army" led by Aquino has anchored its campaign.
Trolls are not supposed to fool the intelligent. So when the message of trolls begins to make things difficult for their targets in this country of the intelligent, you begin to wonder if trolls, despite who and what they are, might not have something intelligent to say after all. If the Marcoses are so bad and the Aquinos so good, why are trolls believed in this country of smart people?