Palengke Tours & Joey-Willie clash

This is in response to columnists Ramon Tulfo of the Inquirer and Erwin Ambo Delilan of Sunstar Bacolod on their respective columns that tackled about the what they call "early campaigning" of Senator Mar Roxas.

In his column in the Inquirer with the topic Mar Roxas’ early campaigning , Mr. Tulfo said:

"Will somebody tell Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II the 2010 presidential election is still three years down the road?

He’s much too early in the campaign trail. Masyadong nagmamadali, making him look like an eager-beaver kid.

Just so voters will not forget him, Roxas went to visit the public market in Baguio City to apparently remind market-goers and vendors that he’s still “Mr. Palengke.”

The grandson and namesake of the illustrious President Manuel Roxas has invited two warring TV comedian-hosts, Willie Revillame and Joey de Leon, to the august halls of the Senate.

The purported reason for the invitation is to shed light on the supposedly P2-million “Wowowee” game show scandal.

Aw c’mon, Mr. Senator, we know the real reason. Only those who were born yesterday wouldn’t know your reason for initiating the Senate investigation of the alleged game-show scandal: Publicity mileage."

Actually, Mr. Tulfo is just like what everybody's thinking. The people may have been interpreting Sen. Roxas acts as "early campaigning" but he's doing it in accordance with his job as Senator. The presidential ambitions and the people's perceptions of Sen. Roxas may have overshadowed his job as Senator. What he does today may mean different to others. A person might say that he's a good Senator because he's really going to the markets and seeing whether the basic commodities' prices are stable while his critics say that he's just doing it for the sake of popularity. Let's face it, Sen. Roxas has already been a Senator for 3 years and he's doing this before (the palengke [market] tours.) It just now that other people have start noticing him because 2010 is just 3 years away. I think you, Mr. Tulfo, was the one born before the election of Mar Roxas as Senator!

On the other hand, in his column in Sunstar Bacolod entitled Delilan: Waste of time!, Mr. Delilan said:

"With so many, many problems that the country is facing right now, I can’t imagine Senator Mar Roxas taking a move to investigate the Wilyonaryo brouhaha that involves the country’s famous “playboy” Willie Revillame, host of ABS-CBN’s noon time show.

Maybe Senator Roxas has a noble intention in his desire to probe the case of what ABS-CBN described as a “technical glitch” committed by the technical men of Wowowee that led to the brouhaha.

But the way I judge Roxas’ move is “politically motivated.”

But I think it’s too early for a political Showtime if Roxas really aims to run for President in 2010.

Yes, it can’t be denied that Roxas topped the Senate race in 2004 because of his “Mr.Palengke” TV ads.

He captured the masses by projecting himself as real “Palengke” man, but later can’t even be seen in the palengke.

Now that Wowowee is one of the famous variety shows on TV plus that Joey de Leon of Eat Bulaga! is the “accuser”, it’s as if Roxas would like to ride on the popularity of two shows and their equally famous hosts.

But the question is: is Roxas determined to conclude whatever probe he would initiate in this Wilyonaryo?

If his action is only meant for a show, then I think Roxas should stop making an early gimmick.

I suggest that instead he should focus himself to other “meaty” issues confronting the country such as the controversial broadband deal between ZTE and the government, the country’s ballooning population, the hanging barangay and SK elections, among others with national concerns.

Let Willie Revillame and Joey de Leon “clash” on TV and let the viewers judge who between them is honest. After all, the two are raking millions of pesos out of their hosting ability even if they are controversial.

If Roxas will focus on the Willie-Joey tiff, then it’s obvious that he has only something in mind – and that’s to make an early campaign. What a waste of time!"

Sen. Roxas stepped-in to this issue so that these "alleged" cheating in game shows would not happen anymore and it is a part of Roxas' advocacy of consumer protection. If ever there was really that "alleged" cheating, would we just left it behind. With the MTRCB denying that it is not in their responsibility to investigate on this game shows and DTI that they only have jurisdiction on raffles and not on game shows (but later admitted that they are also responsible of game shows.)

In what Mr. Delilan said that Joey and Willie should instead be left having face-off in television, what are you to say that? So, you are happy when they're fighting on national television? Should someone be moderating these 2 personalities? It would just intensify the "ratings war" of this stations.

Sen. Roxas is not using the popularity of Joey and Willie and his palengke tours to boost his popularity. He has the people's trust, which he is grateful of, and I believe that he will also have it in 2010.