I see his face painted on the back of many buses, in the attempt perhaps to boost his reputation and to improve recognition. “Posible,” the advertisements read, that he is the key; he is the answer. “Galing at Talino:” the Harvard Law graduate, the most intelligent in the motley crue of Presidential aspirants, the man with the plan. Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. is poised for the grand prize of Philippine politics: the Presidency.
He is the most articulate among them, bringing with him the kind of surprising charisma that turns him into a most enigmatic, charming figure brimming with confidence at every word and spiel. One can make the case of him being the most intelligent: there are brains, in a way, to be glossed over when you do go to Harvard and bring with you such stellar credentials to the Presidential race. Yet perception – the very thing that makes up anything and everything about politics – is reality, and political at that.
In Presidential debates, Teodoro finds it difficult to shrug off questions about the President. He parries them, avoids them, dodges them, strings artful responses, and yet he cannot escape them. He is who he is: Gibo Teodoro, the hand-picked successor to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Every parallelism and judgment passed to him because of that is justified and warranted, never mind that it seems “unfair” or “underhanded.” He is Arroyo’s golden boy, and whether that’s a medal on his neck or a monkey on his back is something he has to – necessarily – contend with.
