Marcos, 53, yesterday said he will campaign for his fellow NP senatorial candidates, militant party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women's Party-list Rep. Liza Maza, in the Ilocos region, which used to be described as the “Solid North”, a bailiwick of the Marcoses.

The younger Marcos is the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who jailed Ocampo and other political activists, including the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. during Martial Law.

“We will be carrying every candidate of NP because I am part of the ticket. If I will not do it, then I should run under the NP, Marcos said, in a press conference in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

In previous media interviews, Ocampo said he and Maza had not decided to support any other senatorial candidates of the NP.

“As of now we are not saying anything beyond this announcement of mutual adoption,” Ocampo said, although he stressed that he was willing to talk to the other candidates to work out common causes.

Marcos assured his full support to all national and local candidates of the NP. “Whatever help I can offer to them, I will do it,” he added.

Marcos said their differences with Ocampo and other political activists obviously started in ideology. Ocampo had gone underground during the Martial Law days and served as the spokesman of the National Democratic Front.

Marcos also assured overwhelming votes from what he calls “Solid Ilocandia” to NP presidential candidate Manny Villar and the senatorial candidates running under him.

Accompanied by his Negrense wife, Louise, and two sons, Simon and Sandro, Marcos said he expects from Negrosanons the same support they got from other places across the nation.

“Their reactions to us have been gratifying because we have delivered a message to fight and solve the problems, talked and presented our platforms of government and advocacies” he added.

Louise Araneta-Marcos whose family resides in Bago City, Negros Occidental, appealed to her fellow Negrosanons to vote for her husband.

Asked if he has plans to run for president in the near future, Marcos replied “I don’t know”. He, however, added “What I am thinking right now is how to win in this May elections as a senator”.

It may bear and serve the Filipino nation well to investigate and know that Manny Villar may actually have broken through from Tondo-ragged accountant to billionaire-rich presidentiable by allowing himself to be used as a foreign investor’s dummy in the Philippine real estate business.

You see, the conduct of real estate business in the Philippines is made exclusive by law to Filipino citizens, necessarily because its affairs involve sensitive issues that affect territory, patrimony, and national security. Wasn’t that a debonair American who was smilingly visible every day at the offices of Crown Asia, Inc., way back before the Villars became political aspirants?

Unfortunately, sighting American presence at the Crown Asia, Inc. organization deteriorates to zero visibility in hot election weather, especially nowadays! As Manny Villar embarked on a political career, it naturally became strategically imperative to avoid flaks of damaging controversy about being economically beholden to foreign influence, especially from nationalist camps of the likes of then Senator Teofisto Guingona Jr. who was one among legislators instrumental in passing general law limiting conduct of real estate business in the Philippines to Filipinos only.

In fact, it was from 1997 to 1999 that the bespactacled, middle-aged, happy American investor (silent or express?) of Crown Asia, Inc. was last regularly observed at the 18th Floor of Cityland Herrera Tower. Most of us often have "humble," sometimes "rotten," beginnings; yet being transparent about such beginnings can do more good than harm. The key to the answer may reach as far back as times with SGV, or perhaps good Senator Manuel Villar may want to comment on this matter at this time?