‘Yellow is the color of continuity’

From blue to yellow, the color of continuity.

Yellow is the color of the presidential campaign of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas for all to see by the hundreds of people sporting yellow ribbons inside the storied Cory C. Aquino Kalayaan Hall of Club Filipino on the eve of the democracy icon’s sixth death anniversary.

President Benigno Aquino III announced on Friday that he had picked Roxas as the candidate his administration will support in next year’s presidential election.

Mr. Aquino called on all administration supporters to work harder to make Roxas “known to all.”

It was the first time that Mr. Aquino publicly acknowledged that Roxas is trailing other candidates in the presidential polls.

“It is clear who, of all the choices, deserves to be our next leader. And if his numbers are low at this point, it only means that we need to do even more to make him known to all,” Mr. Aquino said in his endorsement speech delivered in Filipino.

Despite Roxas’ poor showing in the polls, President Aquino was high-spirited, punctuating his endorsement speech with his trademark humor.

He opened his speech by greeting the “energized” crowd and said he sang the song “Bukas Palad,” performed by a children’s choir at the start of the program, whenever he was angry with someone. “It really calms me,” Mr. Aquino said, drawing laughter from his audience.

“Again, we are being called to prove that ‘the Filipino is worth fighting for.’ Because what is truly important, we have to work for. We have to fight for,” he added.

In endorsing Roxas, the President ended speculations that he might support the presidential bid of Sen. Grace Poe, the front-runner in the polls and touted as the candidate who could beat Vice President Jejomar Binay, now in second place in the surveys.

Meeting with her several times, Mr. Aquino initially gave the impression that he was considering Poe as his administration’s presidential candidate but in their most recent meetings, it appeared that he wanted her to run as Roxas’ Vice President.

Too much at stake

Finally, on Friday, Mr. Aquino said there was too much at stake for people to gamble their votes on someone who “may be” able to continue what his administration has started, such as holding the corrupt accountable, resuscitating the economy, and providing social services to the majority.

“Why must we allow ourselves to be attracted to ‘may be,’ when we can be certain? Someone who, we’re certain, is more than capable; someone, we’re certain, has no boss other than the Filipino people; who, we’re certain, owes no debt of gratitude to any other; someone who, we’re certain, has no interest other than country before self. We will go with whom we can be certain will continue the straight path,” Mr. Aquino said, alluding to his reform program. “And I believe that person is none other than Mar Roxas.”

Roxas has apparently abandoned blue as his political color, wearing the Aquino family’s signature yellow that began with the assassination of the President’s father, opposition Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., in 1983.

It was a sea of yellow, too, at the jampacked Cory C. Aquino Kalayaan Hall of Club Filipino, with some 300 supporters that included administration lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries and Aquino loyalists.

President Aquino arrived at Club Filipino shortly before 11 a.m. and met briefly with Roxas in an adjacent room. When the two entered the hall, the crowd chanted “Noynoy!” and quite awkwardly switched to “NoyMar!”

Traditional politics

The President said it was likely that people have “failed” to recognize what Roxas has done because Roxas, like the Liberal Party in general, “[is] not comfortable with boasting of our achievements” through photo opportunities and putting “[his name and face] on novelty items.”

In his speech, Mr. Aquino took a swipe at the traditional politics practiced by politicians who want “to keep people in dire need so that they will be approached for everything— from food and medicine, to weddings, baptisms or wakes.”

“These, in turn, are the debts of gratitude they rely on during election season, so that they can perpetuate the poverty of the many, and the growing wealth of the few,” he said.

All these are references to Binay, who has been criticized for putting his name on just about anything, including relief goods. The Vice President is also well-known for visiting wakes as a regular activity.

Two obligations

Mr. Aquino said that in his last year in office, his two obligations to the country are to ensure that the 2016 elections will be clean, honest, peaceful and credible, and to ensure that he and all Filipinos make sure that what the country has accomplished during his administration will not go to waste.

This is why he is entrusting the country to Roxas, he said.

Mr. Aquino said Roxas “shows exemplary work and true integrity, the one fully ready to continue the straight path.”

He credited Roxas for the flourishing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country, which he said began with 2,400 employees in 2000. Fourteen years later, BPO has grown into an P18.9-billion industry, employing more than 1 million people.

The President also hailed Roxas’ integrity, saying the latter “forbade” his family to apply in ecozones.

Mr. Aquino said it was the reason why Cubao was one of the last places to have BPO offices in the country because of the rule Roxas imposed on his family.

Cubao, in Quezon City, is practically owned by the Aranetas, the family of Roxas’ mother.

Despite the criticisms Roxas had received for his handling of the government’s response to recent calamities like the Zamboanga siege, Bohol earthquake and Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” Mr. Aquino praised him for doing an excellent job.

“What’s puzzling to us (is) in spite of everything that Mar has done, in spite of his sacrifices, it’s as if there’s an entire industry dedicated to bringing him down,” Mr. Aquino said.

Sona extension

Mr. Aquino also said he could not mention the names of those he missed thanking in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, as he had prepared a long endorsement speech “and we still have to listen to Mar.”

But the President seemed to have delivered an extension of his Sona.

The testimonials on video of people who benefited from the “straight path” that were edited out from the Sona were shown on Friday.

Four “representatives from different sectors” were at Club Filipino to share their success stories, thanks to the Aquino administration, and urged the President to endorse Roxas.

Color shift

Will yellow bring Roxas to Malacañang?

“Yellow is the color of continuity, all the way from 1986 to this day and I think that is the symbol of that color. It is the color of change, continuing reforms and he is picking up from somebody who also picked up from his parents,” Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, a Liberal Party stalwart, told reporters.

Abad said President Aquino would actively campaign for Roxas.

“You remember the word he (President Aquino) used, ‘obligation,’ which means that he ought to be out there, telling the people that of all the people the candidates who offered themselves to continue his work, this is the guy (Roxas) who will certainly continue (the straight path),” Abad said. With a report from DJ Yap

RELATED VIDEOS

RELATED STORIES

Aquino officially endorses Mar Roxas as LP standard-bearer

Roxas must now court allies in coalition for support–Belmonte