Aquino takes backseat, lets Mar, Leni take the spotlight

ILOILO CITY—It was a moment for Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo, and President Aquino, their “most important campaigner,” literally took a step back and moved out of the limelight at the Liberal Party-led  coalition proclamation here on Tuesday night.

The Inquirer caught Mr. Aquino by video walking to the rear of the stage at Freedom Park here as Roxas, Robredo and the administration senatorial candidates waved to the crowd in a show of unity.

Senatorial candidate Francis Pangilinan was seen trying to dissuade Mr. Aquino from going to the rear but the President smiled and gestured to Pangilinan, as if telling him he was OK.

For a few minutes, the President, wearing the team’s signature yellow shirt, stood behind the team, smiling and watching the candidates with his arms behind his back.

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad described President Aquino’s move as “very significant.”

“His role in this campaign is to make sure that his team, on May 9, is going to win. So he will do everything that is necessary to do [even] if he may humble himself,” Abad told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the rally.

Certainly, Abad said, Mr. Aquino “is going to be the most important campaigner” for Roxas, Robredo and the rest of the coalition.

“This whole campaign is going to see the President, of course, express his gratitude to the people for what he had been able to do for the past six years. But at the same time, even more important, he is going to tell the people that ‘straight path’ is not going to end with him, that [reforms are] going to continue and the instruments to that are Mar and Leni,” Abad said.

Still, President Aquino appeared to be the star of the rally because the moment he stepped off the stage, leaving behind the administration candidates, the crowd thinned.