FRONT-RUNNER Rodrigo Duterte with running mate Alan Peter Cayetano. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
EDITOR’S NOTE:
We are running the profiles of the presidential and vice presidential candidates to offer voters insights into their character, hoping these will help the electorate make an informed choice on May 9.
HE CALLS himself a Robin to Batman.
In this role, Alan Peter Cayetano, a vice presidential aspirant, comes across as a stark contrast to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, his presidential candidate.
Cayetano’s speeches are often peppered with Biblical quotes and legalisms as against his principal’s cuss words.
The last two months of the campaign period has shown that Cayetano had been Duterte’s fiscalizer, apologist, and at times a translator of what the mayor would admit was his “gutter language.”
“Batman needs a Robin,” the 45-year-old senator from Taguig City said in an interview.
Political family
Cayetano himself has built a reputation as a “punisher,” not unlike Duterte’s, as a probing inquisitor in Senate hearings.
His bravado in prosecuting those involved in corruption may be attributed to his upbringing. The mestizo-looking Cayetano was brought up by a key figure in the Philippine politics and a schoolteacher of German and American descent.
At the age of 13, he was exposed to the work of his father, the late Sen. Renato Cayetano, a veteran lawyer who was more known as “Compañero” in a popular public affairs talk show in the late 1990s.
At 22, he entered the political scene when he ran and won as councilor of Taguig City while he was studying law at Ateneo de Manila University.
Alan was also the youngest congressman ever elected in the House of Representatives, representing the lone district of Taguig.
He is one of the seven young congressmen who were christened by then President Joseph Estrada as the “Bright Boys,” a group often pitted against the “Spice Boys,” another group of lawmakers critical of the Estrada administration.
But he later on went to the other side to fight Estrada over his “jueteng” and corruption scandals.
During the Arroyo administration, he was the spokesperson for the impeachment team seeking to hold the then President accountable for allegedly stealing, lying and cheating.
His critics would say Alan is “balimbing (two-faced)” for changing loyalties at crucial times.
“We are not politicians,” he said. “When we commit to a certain person, we commit 100 percent.”
The senator said his track record showed that he would fight those involved in anomalies and corruption regardless of close ties.
He enumerated people whom he fought: Estrada, who was grooming him during his early years in Congress; Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo who were his wedding sponsors; Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who was a good friend of his father.
Rock star
During campaign sorties, Cayetano would always come ahead of Duterte and introduce him as the only person who can change the country. Duterte is clearly the rock star. In one event at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City, when it was his turn to speak after Duterte, the media had left and the frenzy that the mayor had brought died down.
Duterte’s treatment of Alan has also changed since the two declared their tandem.
At a birthday party in Cavite on Nov. 21 last year when Duterte first announced his presidential bid, he was asked who would be his vice presidential candidate. Duterte answered: “Ayun, yung laging nakabuntot sa akin (That guy who is always following me),” he said pointing to the senator.
“I was speechless,” said Cayetano, who had eagerly pursued Duterte in Davao and tried to convince him to run for President.
Later on, Cayetano said Duterte’s endorsement of his vice presidential bid had boosted his ratings, making him the front-runner in Mindanao in several voter preference polls.
In the recent Pulse Asia survey conducted from April 5 to 10, however, Cayetano was in fourth spot with 17 percent of votes, behind Senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Chiz Escudero and Camarines Rep. Leni Robredo.
On many occasions, Duterte appealed to his supporters: “If you won’t vote for Alan, do not vote for me.”
Cayetano, during the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) vice presidential debate at the University of Santo Tomas, snapped at Marcos who remarked that Duterte had chosen the namesake son of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be his Vice President.
“Even if you don’t have to vote for me, I am for Duterte 100 percent. I am only an assistant here,” he said.
Cayetano has described his decision to support Duterte as a “leap of faith,” believing that his principal was the only man for the job.
Asset and liability
He knew he wasn’t the rock star of this election. He admitted he initially had planned to run for President. He played a key role in the campaign to expose Vice President Jejomar Binay’s corruption in Makati City, which insiders in his camp said contributed to his ratings going downhill.
“My mouth is my asset and liability,” Alan said in jest.
His strength, he said, rests on his graft-busting record. He once said he was willing to be unpopular as long as he was standing for what was right.
Good match
Frances Quilban, a businesswoman from Davao City, described the Duterte-Cayetano tandem as a “good match.” Originating from the Ilocos region, she said she initially thought of supporting Bongbong Marcos.
But then, she said, Duterte needed a Vice President that would help him pursue his platform that centered on federalism and the goal to fight criminality and corruption.
Early in the campaign period, Cayetano would deliver a lengthy PowerPoint presentation about federalism.
But often, he would be the one providing details and clarifying Duterte’s one-liner remarks on issues.
Asked how he thinks Duterte can close down Congress, he replied: “Anecdotally, by sending tanks, I don’t think he will actually have to do it. It was his way of saying he is serious.”
