From defender to critic: Vic Rodriguez taunts Marcos in 2025 Senate run kickoff

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But for all of Rodriguez’s bluster, there’s another issue he’ll have to focus on, too: his dismal performance in preference surveys

There was a time when Vic Rodriguez went to great lengths to defend Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

He was Marcos’ lawyer, after all, when the latter insisted that he had won the 2016 vice presidential race. Rodriguez then served as his spokesperson when Marcos sought the highest post in the land. 

After Marcos’ majority win in the 2022 presidential race, Rodriguez landed a plum post in Malacañang as executive secretary or the “little president.”

But for his long introduction at the proclamation rally of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s chosen 2025 Senate bets, hosts failed to mention that Rodriguez was the shortest-serving executive secretary in recent years. Instead, the two hosts framed Rodriguez’s swift exit as unfair.

But it was finally enough to put the pro-Duterte crowd at the historic Club Filipino at ease. Rodriguez then took the mic and was guns a-blazing in his new-found role as one of the loudest and most bombastic of Marcos’ critics.

In a campaign speech that lasted over 16 minutes, Rodriguez blasted the Marcos administration over a wide range of issues — from alleged anomalies in the 2025 budget to corruption through dole-out programs. Rodriguez even did the math, claiming that it was impossible for over 215 legislators to find the time to read and properly understand the impeachment charges against Vice President Sara Duterte.

He was also not above taking potshots against his former boss and client — harping on, as other Duterte-backed candidates did, Marcos’ quip a few days back about the lack of other Senate candidates’ competence (“nag-deliver lang yata ng suka eh nabigyan na ng certificate of candidacy” — literally, someone who was only asked to deliver vinegar and yet already got a certificate of candidacy along the way.)

“Hindi man po ako gumagawa ng suka, subalit, nung ako ay bata, maraming beses din naman akong nautusang bumili ng suka ng aking ina. At wala pong nakakahiya doon. Sapagkat bagamat ako ho ay nakabili ng suka nang maraming ulit at nautusang bumili ng suka nang maraming ulit, may diploma ho ako at nakapagtapos ako ng kolehiyo,” he said.

(I do not make vinegar but I was asked many times by my mother to buy vinegar when I was a child. There is nothing embarrassing about that. Because even if I’ve been asked to buy vinegar several times, I have a diploma to show and I finished college. )

Rodriguez was just as bombastic in pushing for his proposed legislation — to lower the threshold of plunder to from P50 million to P1 million, reinstitute the death penalty, and “fight the rise of illegal drugs,” among others. 

The former executive secretary wants to strengthen the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and make drug testing mandatory for all government officials. He had earlier challenged Marcos to take a hair follicle drug test — which Marcos, in turn, has laughed off.

But for all of Rodriguez’s bluster, there’s another issue he’ll have to focus on, too: his dismal performance in preference surveys. 

According to the latest January 2025 Pulse Asia survey, Rodriguez ranks 25-29, with a paltry 3.6% preference rating among those surveyed. – Rappler.com