BORONGAN CiTY, Eastern Samar---Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard-bearer Bongbong Marcos said he disobeyed his airplane pilot's advice just to get to the UniTeam grand rally here.
Marcos, who was at Catarman, Northern Samar Friday morning, was supposedly advised against flying to this city despite the scheduled rally that same morning at past 10 a.m. This was due to the heavy rains affecting the city at that time.
But the UniTeam presidential bet still pushed through with his trip, and was glad that he did after feeling the "warmth" of the crowd's reception of him and the UniTeam ticket at the Borongan Plaza.
"Dapat pag umuulan, lumalamig. Dito sa Borongan, umuulan ma umiinit (When it rains, it should get cooler. But here in Borognan, when it rains, it gets warmer)," the former senator told the people in attendance.
Incidentally, the rain poured its heaviest in the middle of Marcos's speech.
"Sisipinun tayong lahat dito. Tama pala yung aming desisyon. Sinasabi kasi ng pilot, bago kami pumunta dito, sabi, 'Delikado, wag kayong pupunta roon (We will all catch a cold. We made the right decision after all. Earlier before we came here, the pilot said, 'It's dangerous to go there),'" he quoted the pilot as saying.
"Sabi ko, 'Hindi, pilitin natin (I said, 'No, let's force it)," he added, causing the people to cheer wildly.
"Isipin ninyo kung hindi kami nakarating, na-miss naming UniTeam ang makasama kayo at makapiling kayong lahat dito sa Borongan dito sa Eastern Samar (Imagine if we didn't come here, we in the UniTeam would have missed being with you here in Borongan, Eastern Samar)," Marcos further said.
The crowd then erupted in chants of "waray payungay", which basically means "don't use umbrellas".
It was at this point when the Ilocano Palace hopeful recognized 95-year-old Alejandro Duzon, who was in the audience. He called the elderly but still very strong Duzon the "VIP (very important person) of all Marcos loyalist".
"Nakakatuwa po dahil po kahit sa ulan ay naiiwan po kayo upang pakinggan ang aming mensahe ng pagkakaisa (It makes me happy that even with this rain, you chose to stay and listen to our message of unity)," said Marcos.
He subsequently turned to his staff and said on the mic, "Kunan mo ng maraming video ito. Sabihin mo sakin, bayad ito (Take lots of videos of them. Then tell me, they were paid to come here)," he said of the rain-drenched crowd.
"Hindi kami bayad! Hindi kami bayad! (We weren't paid to come here!)" the audience answered as if on cue.