Noli de Castro: The X factor
By Booma Cruz
Newsbreak Contributing editor

While some politicians scramble to become president, the man most Filipinos want to become the country’s 15th chief executive is not interested in the job. Not yet, anyway.

Broadcaster-turned-senator Noli de Castro, Kabayan to his listeners and viewers, is not keen on running for president in 2004. "I am not running. I don’t want to, I really don’t. It’s not a joke being president or vice president," he told Newsbreak even before the start of a formal interview.

But who knows? There is pressure from different sectors for the 54-year-old De Castro to run for either position, and he admitted he was studying his options. Making 11th-hour decisions is nothing new to him. When he decided to run for the Senate in 2001, he did so at noon of the last day of filing. He made history in that race, winning 16.1 million votes—the highest ever garnered by a national candidate in the Philippines.

First in All Surveys

De Castro has maintained his popularity despite leaving his slot as an anchorman in ABS-CBN. He has been consistently first in all surveys on voter preference for president and vice president.

In the latest Social Weather Stations survey conducted from August 30 to September 14, De Castro, without a declaration to seek higher office, emerged as the number one choice for president with a 28 percent nationwide rating, followed by Raul Roco at 20 percent. He was the top vice presidential preference with 37 percent, at least 22 percentage points higher than the next potential candidate, Sen. Loren Legarda Leviste.

He’s number one all over—in Luzon, Visayas, and even in Mindanao, where he got the nod of 35 percent of survey respondents even if he is not a native son. Cast in different candidate combinations, De Castro, who hails from Pola, Oriental, Mindoro, still turned out to be the top choice for president and vice president.

Because of this, tempting offers from different political camps have been coming his way. One offer is from Malacañang, which is still scouting for a running mate for President Arroyo.

"Lately umiinit (It's been getting intense)," De Castro said, referring to the increasing pitch of administration overtures. "I have not resisted, but I told them I am not ready yet to talk to them, to the President." Administration sources describe the offer as difficult to refuse. It reportedly includes an all-expense-paid vice presidential campaign and a "goodwill" package.

De Castro said the offers come from all camps. "There are people whom I sometimes don’t want to talk to because they are people I respect and I might say yes to them."

The senator’s wife, Arlene, his confidante and an ABS-CBN executive, said some of the offers were giving the neophyte senator quite a scare. For example, Arlene said, "[He was told], you don’t have to do anything, just wave to the crowd...but they never asked him about his platform." De Castro has resisted those offers because, his wife said, he feels that he would just be exploited.

De Castro’s clique in the Senate—the so-called Wednesday group composed of five senators—has promised to support him in case he runs for president or vice president. A Senate reporter swears he heard a member of the group, Sen. Joker Arroyo, as saying more than once that De Castro is "destined" to become president.

The Lopez Factor

But is he ready for it? If movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. joins the presidential derby, will De Castro be tempted to fight him?

Granting De Castro would, is he any better for a country burdened by deep-seated divisions and faced with 21st-century challenges? He is, after all, not honed in politics or policymaking or governance. His media experience gives him an advantage, but observers say this doesn’t necessarily translate to leadership. And De Castro’s stint at the Senate shows he has a lot to learn.

Then there’s the Lopez baggage that will hound him on the campaign trail.

An executive of ABS-CBN admits that the network’s big bosses, the Lopezes, are among those who want De Castro to become president by 2004. "They do not trust the Arroyo administration and they are not comfortable with the other candidates," the executive said. "Noli is their man, and he has more than just a good chance of winning."

It is widely believed that ABS-CBN was the biggest supporter of De Castro in the last senatorial elections. During his campaign, ABS-CBN gave more than ad space for its bet. The company provided him with unlimited supply of bottled water and lent him vehicles and air-conditioned tents, according to an ABS staffer who joined the De Castro senatorial campaign.

Money Game

However, a check with the Commission on Elections showed that the Lopezes were not listed as among De Castro’s campaign donors. In his statement on campaign expenses, De Castro declared that he spent more than P7 million on TV ad placements with ABS-CBN. But he admitted to Newsbreak that the Lopezes "helped me a lot because...they gave [the ads] to me for free."

The De Castros stressed, however, that while ABS-CBN and its owners are "vested interests," the Lopezes are not twisting the senator’s arm for him to run for president. Explained Arlene: "In a sense they are encouraging Noli to run but only by pointing out the pros and cons of running."

In the end, De Castro said, it would be his own decision. He said the Lopezes have warned him that once he runs, "people will say that they [the Lopezes] are the ones who will benefit...they don’t want that kind of impression."

Can he say no to them?

"Why can’t I say ‘no’ if I don’t want to? But it’s not enough to just say ‘no, no, no.’ You have to explain." De Castro said his relationship with ABS-CBN and its owners is based on mutual respect. "In the treatment of a particular news story, if one of them asks why it is so, you have to explain. If you explain it to their satisfaction, they’ll say, OK. All they’ll ask of you is to provide balance, to give both sides of the story."

Some observers say the Lopezes are a dampener to De Castro’s chances of becoming president: his close association with the Lopez family alienates him from other power brokers and political donors. "Noli still lacks the players he needs to win," said political strategist Antonio Gatmaitan.

"Since Noli de Castro is known as bata ng mga Lopez (beholden to the Lopezes), other power brokers will react by taking the position that ‘he’s not our man.’ They would thus hesitate to donate money to his campaign. This is the logic of money players.... Noli can win as vice president but not enough to win as president," Gatmaitan explained.

De Castro knows that he does not have the funds to bankroll a presidential campaign and that he has very little time to raise the needed money, which analysts believe can run up to billions of pesos.

Records show that De Castro spent P32.431 million to get elected in May 2001—no mean feat for a neophyte campaigner. But he said he didn’t have to work hard to raise funds. In 2001, local officials knew he would draw the crowds, so they found ways to have him in their campaign sorties. On his own, he campaigned in public markets and during motorcades.

The vice presidential or presidential campaign is a different ball game. It means big money, and he knows it comes with a price. "When they say no strings attached, I don’t believe them. There is no such thing, unless they give only little," he said.

Because of his financial and organizational handicap, De Castro has to join a strong party if he decides to run. "Which parties are strong? Lakas and LDP, but they already have their own presidential candidates. So, where do I go? Will I run for vice president? That’s what I am considering now."

De Castro believes he is a shoo-in for the vice presidency, but he’s not obsessed with it. He doesn’t like the kind of politics he has seen so far. He said, "If showbiz is plastic, politics is even more so, and it’s the cheap kind."

Unhappy about Politics

De Castro is not happy being a politician, according to his wife and colleagues at ABS-CBN.

Said his wife: "It’s not his cup of tea. I can see, I can feel he is not happy in the Senate, which has few accomplishments and is in a state of confusion. Every time the session resumes, he says, ‘Oh, no, I have to go in there again.’"

Arlene said De Castro wants to go back to dzMM and "TV Patrol." "That’s his life, he’s sad without them." As a radio commentator for almost two decades, her husband, as senator, has found himself "tight-lipped" on issues that he probably would have ranted about had he been not a politician.

De Castro has nothing to lose if he runs for higher office next year. If he loses in the election, he’ll remain a senator until the end of his term in 2007. But friends and colleagues see no indication that he is running in 2004. Which is why, says one, "nobody is organizing [an election campaign]."

Just in case he decides to run, however, his wife—seen by many as aggressive and a power player in her own right—has started preparing, calling up old political contacts. "I support my husband. If he wants to run, OK lang. But if he finds it so much trouble, then he shouldn’t," said Arlene, who comes from the Sinsuat political clan.

He blames politics for the country’s woes, saying only sincerity and genuine reconciliation—with the leader’s words being matched by actions—can address these problems. The public has had enough of politicians. "People are turned off by politicians. They don’t see me as a politician, that’s why they want me," he said.

Not Ready

But this public cynicism toward politicians has a downside to it, De Castro noted, because they seem to be looking for a messiah to lift them up from despair. He’s "not ready" for such a big task, he said. "Sometimes people look up to you as a superman who can solve the country’s problems. I am not afraid [to hold such a responsibility], but I am not ready. I am not afraid because once you are there, you have no choice but to do the job unless you want people to curse you. I have not experienced being cursed. I don’t like that to happen to me."

At least two members of the Wednesday group believe De Castro is not yet ripe for the presidency, and they say the broadcaster knows his limitations. De Castro confirmed the observation: "Correct. I am not ready. Never in my life have I thought about becoming president or vice president. They say it’s destiny. I don’t put too much weight on destiny.

"I don’t believe there has been anyone who became president without aspiring for it. I don’t have that ambition.... I can always go back to broadcasting where I can earn more."

To those who belittle his qualifications to be president because he is a "mere" broadcaster whose facility in the English language is far from satisfactory, De Castro, a commerce graduate from the University of the East, has this to say: "We have put in that position several people who looked capable of doing the job, but look what happened. I am not saying something good would happen if I were in that position. But it’s unfair to say, either, that nothing good would happen if I were there." — With reports from Aries Rufo and Isagani de Castro Jr.

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