NOW, it can be told: “Kingmaker, The Hardcopy” is officially a bestseller. So it has been the past many weeks, in fact.
Fully booked has moved copies of “Kingmaker,” which chronicles the journey of lawyer Vic Rodriguez, placing these on its bestseller shelves in all its branches as a result of sales data on the performance of the book.
Kingmaker made it onto this famous Fully Booked list, along with “Spare” by Prince Harry and “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life” by Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others.
Kingmaker was officially released July 5 and made available to Fully Booked, Solidaridad, Popular Bookstore, and Baybayin weeks later.
“Kingmaker” tells the story of Rodriguez as spokesman in the electoral protest of 2016 vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. trying to win the battle for the son of the late dictator and namesake in the bar of public opinion and his journey how he campaigned long and hard for Marcos Jr to win the 2022 presidential elections.
Marcos won, and he appointed Rodriguez as his first executive secretary and later as chief of staff. But Rodriguez figured in a tug-of-war over good governance with the President’s wife Liza Araneta Marcos who wanted to prevail over them on her choice appointees on several revenue-making government agencies.
The President gave in, the First Lady got her wish, prompting Rodriguez to resign in disgust 79 days later.
There were other reasons why Rodriguez left Marcos after doing the heavy lifting for a Marcos return to Malacanang.
There are other juicy details never known in the Marcos’ presidency, and during the 2022 campaign, or even during the previous administrations, the book featuring an insider’s account, a first-person account about the making of a president, not just of another candidate, but of Marcos whose father, mother, and the rest of the family, the young Marcos included, were overthrown during the four-day, military-backed people power revolution in February 1986.
The Marcoses fled the country at the height of the revolution and would later face numerous charges involving ill-gotten wealth and human rights violations such that nobody thought the Marcos could still return to Malacanang.
“Ang daming pasabog,” said the governor of a huge province, south of Metro Manila, after reading the book. The governor is a known supporter of Marcos and former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte, who did the book foreword, himself said the book was a “must-read” for all, shortly after Rodriguez handed him a copy last July.
“Not a few would gladly pay for a tidy sum just to get a first-hand look into the workings inside Malacanang in the heady days after the 2022 elections and the first sign of the cracks would destroy, perhaps forever, a bond that had weathered many storms,” Duterte said in the foreword.
A literary giant in Mindanao, writer and academic Christine Godinez-Ortega said the book is reader friendly because of the straightforward narration, the attractive layout of text and photos, and copies of official documents are in their proper places.
“The book’s five chapters proceed methodically from laying the groundwork for its being and becoming — getting to know Rodriguez, the process of how he became a Kingmaker, the challenges he had to face and how he hurdled them, to finally breaking ties with the man he worked hard to be elected President of our country,” she said in her review of the book last Aug. 13.
The book’s five chapters proceed methodically, she said, from laying the groundwork for its being and becoming — getting to know Rodriguez, the process of how he became a Kingmaker, the challenges he had to face and how he hurdled them, to finally breaking ties with the man he worked hard to be elected President of our country.
“Such a first-hand narration is fraught with honesty and sincere tone between the pages and only a seasoned journalist, recipient of the Mc Luhan and Jaime V. Ongpin Excellence awards like Gerry Lirio could present, albeit often conscious in their telling at times. But, overall, Lirio did the Filipino people a favor by agreeing to write this book at a time of uncertainty and fear of the future with the threat of war and again, the shameless interference of a foreign power,” she said.
Another reader said it was a breeze reading the book. “Tingin ko, honest at walang pretensions so hindi ka na dapat mag-aanalyze,” she said.
“Tama naman ang premises na galing sa mga taong nagtitiwala kay Vic as a person ang content.”
Yes, the premise was all right, a veteran broadcaster said. “The book is 99 percent accurate.”
