The Hakbang ng Maisug is pinning its hope on Atty. Vic Rodriguez to be its voice in the Senate.

Rodriguez accepted Maisug’s challenge in a statement he issued before supporters in a lightning rally near the Manila Hotel after filing his certificate of candidacy.

“Sa gitna ng nakabibinging katahimikan at pagkunsinti sakaliwa’t kanang mali, kurapsyon at paglustay sa pera ng mgaPilipino, hindi ko matatanggap na hayaan na lamang ang ganitong uri ng baluktot na pamumuno na magpatuloy,” declared Rodriguez before his motley audience.

The grim faces of the men and women who openly professed their support for Rodriguez reflected the seriousness of the cause to which they committed themselves.

To say that it has been a roller coaster ride for Rodriguez in the last two years would be to stress the obvious. He had been campaign manager, Executive Secretary and discard, forced to step down from office after a vicious demolition job that would have broken a lesser man.

Rodriguez, however, showed the nation he had nerves of steel. Emerging from a brief hiatus to lick his wounds, Rodriguez stood up and be counted with the fledgling Hakbang ng Maisugheadlined by former President Rodrigo Duterte. And just when people thought his days in Malacañang were a closed book, Rodriguez spilled juicy details of those tumultuous months with his own book that shook the Marcos administration. Those who doubt the veracity of the secrets that Rodriguez brought into the open can simply weigh it against the deafening silence from the Palace.

Obviously, fighting for its life with the waves of scandals, anomalies, and incompetence of its own undoing, the Marcos administration launched an undeclared war not only on its critics but on the very foundations of democracy that Filipinos hold dearly. From the well-documented persecution of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church and SMNI, the network that it operates, the pushback against all Maisug rallies and suspension of local officials who allowed them in their jurisdictions, the congressional and Senate investigations of allies of former President Duterte and the threat of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, the administration left no doubt it won’t allow anyone or anything to question, much more threatening its grip.

The 2025 mid-term election, therefore, is not only a referendum on the Marcos administration’s governance. It is also an acid test for Filipinos to prove to themselves that they deserve the freedoms that heroes of the past valiantly fought for.

Electoral campaigns are almost always occasions for extravagant and even outrageous promises. For this reason, the Hakbang ng Maisug decided to cast its lot behind the one who has been there since it started its crusade and who has had his share of harassment and threats.

Rodriguez admitted that it was a difficult decision to make. It’s easy to see that. He knows what he, Maisug, and the Filipino people are up against. And he knows what is expected of him.

When he said yes just days before he filed his certificate of candidacy, only a few men and women were present to cheer him lustily. And yet, if the spontaneous manifestations of support when word leaked out that he was running is any indication, Rodriguez definitely is not alone.

Maisug, and the millions of unnamed Filipinos that form its secret mass base know Rodriguez would be the voice they need in the Senate. It won’t be easy, but it can be done.

His parents had no idea this day would come, but the choice of the name could be prophetic. Rodriguez was not named Victor for nothing.