Back in 2003, our fourth quarter issue of i magazine featured Roco and his campaign strategy as one of the potential contenders for the presidential race, along with the two other declared presidential candidates — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Panfilo Lacson — at the time.

For that edition, we interviewed their key campaign operators. I was assigned to talk to Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko party and was able to interview its chief operating officer, Ernie Pangan. The first thing he told me then was that the elections will be very crucial because of the heightened popular disenchantment with politics and with politicians. Pangan said:

“Gulpi na ang mga tao (People feel battered already). There is a lot of cynicism (so) people will go by who is consistent, is at least telling the truth. Tama na ang bola-boladas (Enough of the crap), let’s go for who we know will give us a stable, honest, and sincere government.”

Dismissed for having no money and machinery, the Roco campaign therefore tried to make a case for a new kind of politics. Roco appealed to youth and women’s causes, was picky about campaign contributors, publicly declaring that he will not take money from drugs or jueteng, and consciously took the moral high ground on issues like the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

True to their word, Roco and Aksyon Demokratiko did run a nontraditional campaign that relied less on logistics and more on people. Pangan remarked then:

“How did we overcome Marcos? How did we overcome Erap? It’s not by machinery. We have to work on the people. You do a lot of organizing and educating work. You have to educate the youth that this election is theirs. They are the majority of the population. And you tell them, ‘It is in your hands. You have the power.’”

Hoping for a Roco victory (which would have signaled a tectonic shift in the nature of Philippine politics), Aksyon pinned its hopes on the electorate not to allow a wheeling-dealing, more-of-the-same kind of campaign. “If so, then we get what we deserve,” said Pangan. “If we continue believing that someone without money and machinery will lose, then we are self-defeating. Ngayon pa lang sinasabi natin na walang pag-asa ang bayang ito (This early, we’re already saying there is no hope for this country).“

Alas, Pangan’s words may have proved to be prophetic.