BBM the graft buster

SKETCHES

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Let's parse the latest statement from anti-corruption crusader Ferdinand Marcos Junior. If any of his allies would be found to be involved in anomalous government deals, President Marcos said before jetting off to India, "sorry na lang, hindi na kita kaalyado." So sorry, you're no longer my ally.

The joke that greeted this post-"mahiya naman kayo" quotation, of course, was that he could soon find himself all by his lonesome, bereft of allies and possibly even a relative or two. Or three. Or...you get the drift. It's lonely at the top, you could lose all your friends, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once told us pre-"Hello Garci" scandal. But this shouldn't matter too much for BBM, whose avowed goal in running for president is to rehabilitate his family's name and his beloved father's legacy.

What an ironic but truly outstanding achievement it would be if Ferdinand Marcos Junior would indeed leave a genuine legacy as a graft buster who took on the entrenched political clans and their businesses.

Especially if he can dig up the rot in the flood control projects, which have failed to do the job despite the allocation of a reported P980.2 billion in the past three years alone.

But if the goal midway through his term has shifted from legacy building to self-preservation after 2028, some members of his inner circle might remind him that politics is addition, and the compromised allies subtracted from his camp could be added to the other side.

Who and how many is BBM willing to jettison for his legacy building?

He could, of course, forge alliances with new and like-minded reformist groups, to replace the ones he is certain to unfriend if he means what he says.