Honeymoon over for Grace?

GRACE Poe and Francis Escudero have been getting bad reviews lately. Is the public’s honeymoon with Poe and (in extension) Escudero over?

Poe came onto the local scene when her father, movie icon Fernando Poe Jr., died suddenly on Dec. 14, 2004, at age 65. FPJ (the movie star’s signature initials,) died months after a bitter loss to President Gloria Arroyo through apparent massive vote-rigging.

Since then Grace has enjoyed ascendant celebrity, no doubt in part due to her link to FPJ and the residual public resentment over him being allegedly cheated out of the presidency.

Grace Poe entered politics in 2013 and topped the senatorial election. From there, it’s been a heady journey into political stardom. Until recently she had been the darling of Philippine media as well as the populace.

But the euphoria over her seems to be fading.

As the glare of popularity trains on her, she becomes more and more the target of commentary and criticism. Currently her status as a natural-born Filipino citizen is being questioned, as well as her having the required period of Philippine residency in order to run for higher office.

She was faulted for her seemingly knee-jerk comment on Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) members’ right to assemble and protest as INC rank-and-file massed on and clogged EDSA-Shaw Blvd. for four days at the end of August.

On the INC controversy, along with the INC itself, she was on the wrong side of the argument. The issue wasn’t violation of the doctrine of separation of church and state at all, as claimed by the INC.

Poe missed the point. INC members had been called out to EDSAShaw to scare government away from investigating an accusation of illegal detention by an ousted INC minister. The alleged violation by government of separation of church and state was just a pretext by the INC to flex its political muscle by massing 15,000 warm bodies on EDSA.

The impression that Poe is overly ambitious – spurning President Aquino and Mar Roxas’ vice presidential offer in the process – is gaining more and more traction. Her unwillingness to become understudy to Roxas if he becomes president may have turned off many people. Filipinos don’t like exceedingly ambitious people.

The coming months will tell us how deep or shallow Poe’s grasp is on the issues facing the nation. From the beginning, Ergo has maintained that Poe is still green (I used the term “bubot”). She will have an opportunity to prove otherwise in the coming months, especially if she declares herself a candidate for higher office.

As to Escudero, he’s attracting more and more negative comments. The first major issue to come back to haunt him this year was his initiating and pushing the “Noy-Bi” counter tandem that may have caused Mar Roxas’ defeat in the vice presidential race in 2010.

“Noy-Bi” refers to the combination of Noynoy Aquino and Jojo Binay as an alternative to the official team of Aquino and Roxas in 2010.

Today, Escudero downplays his role in promoting the Noy-Bi tandem to escape blame and resentment, not only of Roxas himself but of people who supported the Aquino-Roxas ticket. (I wonder how Mr. Aquino himself feels about Escudero on this issue.)

Other negative comment portrays Escudero as being untrustworthy, a spoiler, and full of empty talk. I don’t know him but I’ve heard others call him mayabang. One senior politician thinks he’s a bad influence on Poe, who appears to be reliant on him for advice.

Escudero, deservedly or not, seems to be turning out as Poe’s Svengali, a powerful presence in her political life, a compelling voice in her ear, and possibly a security blanket for her.

Many commentators, including politicians who’ve seen it all, are certain Poe and Escudero are gearing up for a run for president and vice president respectively. If and when that becomes official, expect the attacks to further intensify.

Will they survive the onslaught?