Why Mar Roxas would never get that rock star status

"Rock Star status"

The urban dictionary says this term means "just another way of saying awesome. or something insanely cool. impressive."

Just recently, thousands of Filipinos online lambasted Mar Roxas' ad once again, describing it as "trash" and even castigated the actors and actresses who lent their time just to show their support behind him.

One netizen even criticized what the hell ABS-CBN import stars Bill Crawford, JayR and another forgettable name were asked to endorse Roxas when these three are American citizens. Our laws forbade foreigners from commenting on our politics.

I pity Mar. I met the guy several years ago, and frankly, he means well. He's a nice guy.

I think he is just being poorly managed. Those Ayala advertising hotshots are really messing up things for him. They probably believed that someone like Roxas could actually be made a "rock star", just like how Chiz Escudero's publicists created Grace Poe, or how media now thinks Davao city mayor and now presidential candidate Rody Duterte is. Of course, not to mention Vice president Jejomar Binay whose campaign, while not as bombastic as that of Poe's or Duterte's is considered "effective" because if you ask ordinary people, they will tell you what surveys are trying to conceal from us. Anyway, that's another story.

Four things why Mar would never be rock star material.

First, those old enough to have encountered or met her forebears like Gerry Roxas would always compare him with his deceased father. Gerry was a charismatic individual, tough, intelligent and a darling of the press. Mar is even compared to the late Dinggoy Roxas, his brother who also died in 1993. Gerry and Dinggoy had impressive records as Congressmen and Senator. That leads us to the second reason..

The second reason is that Mar did not surpass or even equalled the performance of his father and brother, who were both seasoned politicians. Yes, he has been in public service since his brother died but lacks the charisma of the two. You cannot fault Mar that--he was not molded to become a politician. He was a banker. He is an investment guy and one main thing about these types of guy is that they are not born leaders--they are born to sell their principals, not themselves. They think before they act, and therefore, lack what many in business say, "gut feel". Mar is not a gut player.  And that, again, leads us to the third reason.

Politics is for the dim witted. Politics is for those who has the guts, the feel of the crowd, the ability to think fast and decide with firmness and with resolve. No such thing with Mar. For him, things should be studied carefully, something which weakens him and the public's perception of him, for he does not possess leadership qualities.

That explains why, at every post Mar occupied during his entire career, there is no singular thing which he did that etched in the minds of the public. Mar Roxas was never been as impressive as an Executive not like say Cesar Purisima, or when he was DILG, not even near greatness as that of his predecessors (Puno and Robredo) or when he was Congressman, nothing as impressive even compared with another reluctant politician, Quezon Congressman Erin Tanada. That leads us to the fourth and last reason why his handlers are getting the heat and obviously now scampering to find something that would make Mar "shine" and that is...

Mar Roxas does not have a narrative that would endear him to his publics. He wants the public to think that he is for them, when he surely is not. He was not born poor, and the public knows he's filthy rich.

There is no narrative about Roxas except his faults. Narratives are social currencies which people use to exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions, and in politics, that is most important.

It would have been nice if Roxas ran and won a local executive post and implemented his brilliant ideas there. That is a narrative.

It would have been even nicer had Roxas chose to fight his fellow Oligarchs in socio-economic issues such as telecomms, public services, etal. The thing is Roxas is perceived as one of the oligarchs that continually oppress the people. Worse, he really acts like that. Read his pronouncements. Even the way he speaks exude the brashness and the conoistic tone which people find offensive.

With this, Roxas is being blamed for every single fault there is because he is perceived to be deeply entrenched in the system, a system so rotten and a system which people want to change for so long.

Mar needs to break out of this mold. Mar needs to be a rebel. And probably, people would begin to listen once more and would start looking at him again, this time, without disdain.