Cayetano’s catch-up strategy: Go after Marcos

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano gambled on an assertive negative campaign against his Nacionalista party-mate Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — and the initial feedback from social media, even before the first and only debate between the six vice presidential candidates has even ended, seems to be positive.

Cayetano is the running mate of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the same city where posters promoting a Duterte-Marcos tandem have mushroomed. He is trailing the tight race for vice president, behind Marcos, Sen. Francis Escudero, and Rep. Leni Robredo.

Cayetano took Marcos to task repeatedly in the debate’s first hour, criticizing the son of the late dictator both for his family’s ill-gotten wealth reportedly accumulated during his father’s 20 years in power and for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam involving businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Cayetano accused the Marcos family of amassing over $10 billion in illegal wealth, and quizzed his rival over his declaration of assets, wondering aloud how he could declare a personal wealth in the hundreds of millions of pesos.

Marcos vigorously disputed Cayetano’s numbers and questioned Cayetano’s timing. In all their time together in the Senate, he said, Cayetano had never raised the issue with him. It was all politics, he suggested.

At one point, Cayetano even teased Marcos, when he attempted to speak over Cayetano’s rebuttal, about stealing his time to speak. “Pati oras ko nanakawin mo” (you’ll steal even my time)?, he asked Marcos.

CNN Philippines, the debate’s lead organizer together with the Business Mirror, had allowed 150 supporters from each campaign to fill the venue. The response of the audience inside the University of Sto. Tomas’s Quadricentennial Pavilion to Cayetano’s loaded joke was almost giddy.

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