Anointment

A recurring thread in social media discussions today is that the melo-dramatic farewell and resignation of Mar Roxas from the Cabinet of President Aquino on Monday was a mere zarzuela or stage play.

Early yesterday, Roxas made a teary farewell speech at the Philippine National Police headquarters (PNP) in Camp Crame before saying his goodbyes at the DILG.

In the afternoon, Malacañang announced that the President wanted Roxas to stay awhile to allegedly ease the transition at the DILG. That knee-jerk rejection of Roxas’ resignation firmed up the moro-moro narrative.

Derided by columnist Jojo Robles as a “cheap publicity stunt”, the Wag the Dog operation was naturally seen by pundits as an attempt to steal the thunder away from Vice President Jojo Binay’s True State of the Nation Address (TSONA).

But Binay’s TSONA was not blunted at all by Mar’s drama.  If at all, what jostled for media attention was San Miguel executive Ramon Ang filing a syndicated estafa case against the Gozons to recover his P1 billion downpayment for the botched takeover of TV network GMA.

The anointment of Roxas as Liberal Party bet in the 2016 presidential election was a monumental blunder in that it came too early, leaving Roxas in a Catch-22 or damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.

If Roxas doesn’t leave the DILG ASAP he’d lose whatever is left of his credibility and open himself to attack that he’s using the DILG and the PNP to project his floundering candidacy.

But if Roxas leaves the DILG now, he’s bound to fall further behind Grace Poe and Binay in the surveys because he’d be in a veritable media coverage limbo.  –End-

Image by: Scottaberry.com