No quit in Roxas, Enrile, Jayvee

Roque’s problem was that he believed it was only he who should lie and it was an outrage to be lied to, even by his boss. He also might have acquired a bit of selfimportance from his lying, okay, covering up, effectively for his boss. So he resigned or threatened to resign (the facts are hazy here) when his boss kept him in the dark about his visit to a hospital. But the aforementioned boss called his bluff and immediately hired a replacement.

JV Ejercito, like Enrile, wants to be senator again. Unlike Enrile, he is an incumbent member of the Upper House. But his re-election bid is seriously threatened by someone, who like Enrile, spent time in detention for the same alleged offense of abusing their pork barrel, to put it mildly. Quite ironically, that someone is his own brother.

There must be something about detention that rekindles the political fire in the detained during an election. Or maybe, Estrada and Enrile think that getting elected to the Senate again is a vindication greater than what they can secure from the court through an acquittal. They may have a point there, too, at least in terms of timeliness. An election verdict can be had in a matter of days whereas court proceedings can sometimes last a lifetime.

Jayvee was a guest on Frankahay Ta yesterday morning (our scheduled interview on Tuesday was cancelled at the last minute) and while he said he did not want to dwell on his misunderstanding with Jinggoy, it was obvious that emotions were still raw between them. He hedged when I asked him if he would answer yes if people asked him if they should vote for his brother.

Jayvee also admitted that his relationship with his father, former president Erap Estrada, is strained owing to the latter’s prioritizing his brother’s candidacy over his. But he is not quitting on his father, he said. “I owe my life to him. He raised me.”