MANILA, Philippines — “[Vic] Rodriguez felt responsible and accountable to fulfill the campaign promises to the nation. But the weak leadership of the President and his compromised decisions frustrated the Little President.”
This was how “Kingmaker, The Hard Copy” answered the questions about why Rodriguez, who served as the first Executive Secretary of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and the overall strategist of the President, who paved the way to the return of the Marcoses in Malacañang left his post 79 days after his appointment.
Seasoned newsman Gerry Lirio wrote the book based on interviews with Rodriguez and several other former Marcos officials.
‘Tell-all book’
Rodriguez revealed that he had been subjected to numerous derogatory labels and falsehoods following his departure from Malacañang, yet he had chosen to remain silent initially.
He emphasized his intention to rebut the allegations on his own terms, stating that the book was his method of doing so.
“Your only investment is words, the truth lies with me,” he said in Filipino.
But why did he leave his post after 79 days in Malacañang?
One of the many reasons why Rodriguez left the President is due to the interference of the first lady Liza Araneta Marcos who accused him of amassing so much money in such a short time to which Rodriguez claimed to be “untrue, unfair, and unfounded.”
Rodriguez vehemently dismissed allegations that the embattled executive secretary had profited from selling appointment papers to aspiring candidates.
At the book launch, he presented a series of documents proving that it was the First Lady who possessed the matrix of officials she desired to appoint in the Marcos cabinet.
According to Rodriguez, his relationship with the first lady started to stir up because the latter meddled extensively, convening Cabinet meetings at Malacañang and pushing to appoint officials to key revenue-generating agencies such as the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
“There are those who would want to be appointed right away and jump ahead of those whom we were processing before them. However, there’s whispering here, whispering there, and sabotage over there,” Rodriguez said in mixed English and Filipino.
As a result, Rodriguez was compelled to resign as Executive Secretary and unequivocally rejected the offer to become Presidential Chief of Staff.
The struggle in the making of a Marcos presidency
On the other hand, the book likewise told that while the making of the Marcos presidency, marked by several controversies from the past, was treated with hostility by the traditional media, Rodriguez said “the public, or at least a great size of it, was not.”
Although the media-shy Marcos often turned down interviews with the press during his campaign, his news statements were planned at least two weeks ahead.
Rodriguez and veteran newsman Rey Briones would present a potential media issue to reporters, outline a scenario, and instruct them to draft a press statement or news release, it said.
These statements were all subject for approval by Briones, Rodriguez, and last, Marcos.
The ‘hostile media’
Rodriguez condemned “paid journalism” for exacerbating the political climate during his tenure as the Marcos team’s chief strategist and later as executive secretary. Despite facing criticism for his handling of Marcos Jr., Rodriguez acknowledged that presenting Marcos positively was challenging due to the family’s history of controversies.
In the book, Rodriguez anticipated and prepared to confront the “hostile media” while representing Marcos. The lawyer-turned-BBM campaign mouthpiece steadfastly believed, and continues to believe, that Marcos was unjustly deprived of victory in the 2016 elections and deserves vindication.
