Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, with wife Heart Evangelista. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
On a recent trip up north, where the vote is known to be solid for his closest rival, independent vice presidential candidate Sen. Francis Escudero had to confront the inevitable question: “Why did you even come here?”
It was Escudero’s third trip in two months to Ilocos Norte province, the bailiwick of Nacionalista Party’s Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. The Bicolano candidate still hoped to convert some loyalists of the late dictator’s namesake son.
Luckily, the senator has a way with words: His battle-tested elocution came in as handy ammunition in “enemy” territory.
“I regard you not as Ilocanos. I regard you as Filipinos,” said the campaign veteran in Filipino, responding to what could have been a deflating inquiry.
“I said, ‘That’s why we wear white and have no party, because we want to change the system… Poverty, calamities and tragedy do not recognize party colors. We want to win so we could serve our countrymen, whether they voted for us or not, whether they like us or not,’” he told Inquirer reporters and editors into the second week of the campaign period.
“They all clapped, except for him (the one who asked the question),” Escudero said, laughing.
The senator is running for Vice President for one reason: “to be remembered, for having done something, for having finished something.”
At 46, Escudero is already thinking about the legacy he will leave behind.
“I don’t know how to sing, I can’t leave a CD behind. I don’t know how to dance, I’m not like Heart (Evangelista, his actress wife), I can’t act. My works of art won’t even be more expensive after I die unlike other artists. This (politics) is hopefully a field where I can do something and be remembered for it,” said Escudero, also an occasional abstract painter who learned the art through his wife.
“No hifalutin things like wanting to serve because I can serve even outside of the government. No hifalutin things like making a difference, because I can also make a difference outside politics,” Escudero said.
Campaign veteran
He may have gone through several campaigns, but they are never the same for Escudero.
The son of the late Sorsogon 1st District Rep. Salvador Escudero III, the senator, better known for his high-recall nickname “Chiz,” has gone through the rungs of the campaign hierarchy: from mixing gawgaw (paste) for election posters and supervising logistics for his father’s bids, to serving as a presidential candidate’s campaign spokesperson and now campaigning for the doorstep to Malacañang.
“Having run a lot of campaigns, you should know it’s not going to be a walk in the park,” said Escudero of his current campaign with independent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe.
“[There are] growing pains, like with any campaign. If you are veteran you should know that there are growing pains in any campaign, that no campaign is perfect,” he said.
Talents hired to entertain crowds in between candidates’ speeches would sometimes arrive late, some members of the team would go missing, someone would forget something, and so on, said Escudero.
But he carries on, even with just three to four hours of sleep. He rises before dawn for early morning flights to provincial sorties and then hops right back on a plane to Manila for evening meetings and other engagements.
As he said, “I’d rather be tired” in going around than have a full night’s sleep but miss out.
Fondness for elections
Besides, elections have long been an interest for Escudero: “Mahilig ako sa eleksyon (I am fond of elections).”
“Practically, I held every possible position in a campaign locally for congressman, before I finally ran for that position,” said the senator, who won his first attempt in 1998.
Campaigning has been part of Escudero’s life since 1984, when he worked for his father’s bid as assemblyman, quite ironically under the administration of then President Marcos, the father of his vice presidential rival.
“They called me ‘Gob.’ I don’t know why. Probably because I was into elections. I was assigned to post my father’s posters,” he said of the time he was just 14.
In 1987, he took care of logistics for his father’s campaign.
“I was the one who decided how many posters should be distributed per municipality, per leader. When someone donated adidas (chicken feet) for the campaign, I was the one who decided how many should be given out to every leader,” he said.
By 1992, he manned the house to entertain constituents seeking all kinds of assistance.
He wanted to run for a local post as early as 1993, but his father wanted him to finish law first, and later his masters.
It was only in 1998, when his father was out of Congress and busy as President Fidel Ramos’ agriculture secretary, that the younger Escudero got his break into politics.
Then just 28 years old, Escudero won a Congressional seat, even while his father never actively campaigned for him.
“He never once stood in any stage or spoke before any mic or lectern or podium to actually campaign for me. Neither was he interviewed in any radio station by any media outlet to campaign for me or say ‘vote for my son.’ In the beginning I felt bad,” he said.
But he soon understood and became closer to his father—the only one he regards as his idol in politics.
“He gave me enough space to commit some mistakes and learn from him as well,” said Escudero of his father, who died of colon cancer in August 2012.
Escudero has never lost an election since, and during the years when he was an incumbent, he was tapped to help out presidential bids.
In 2004, he was spokesperson for presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., his current standard-bearer’s adoptive father. In 2010, he worked behind the scenes of President Aquino’s campaign.
“I only handled Noynoy’s (President Aquino’s) sorties and media shepherding. I had no business in what was happening in the campaign because I can’t show my face during their campaign,” said Escudero, who had bolted his party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, a year earlier.
In the coming weeks, Escudero said he would make his presence felt more, despite what he described to be his team’s “meager resources.”
“To hopefully match what they (other candidates) have been doing in terms of their ability to go around, their ability to advertise, their ability to get their message across,” said Escudero.
He said he has no benefactors, except for friends, scoffing at the impression that “every young and poor politician has to have a rich businessman behind him.”
Asked if his wife would make appearances on the trail, Escudero said such would be seldom, if at all, as she is also busy with work.
Asked about the possible outcome of the May balloting, Escudero said: “When you run for an election, there are only two possibilities: You win or you lose.”
“When I decided to run, I accepted both possibilities. If both are acceptable, then you have nothing to fear. And that’s why I ran,” he said.
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