The first time I saw Paolo Roxas on my Duterte-Marcos Tiktok algorithm was in December 2024. It seemed apolotical enough: the older brother arriving to the hugs and joy of siblings Pepe and Pilar. It was only then that I realized that this tall moreno was in fact Mar Roxas’s son. Soon enough it was clear that he was running for public office, and not because there was any campaign slogans or ayuda content—as I have seen in much of this Tiktok algo since mid-2024. Instead there he was, going around the community, speaking in the vernacular to manangs and manongs, playing with kids, throwing some high fives around. On Christmas there was some dancing, and recently, a video of him singing Top Of The World in a karindera. On Valentine’s there were the default jokes and content about love.

Across this whole time, no sloganeering, no early campaigning. Just content of Paolo walking riding a motorbike with a squad of bikers, or having fun with the community, and of course some videos with the special participation of Pepe and Pilar.

It was only last night when I realized that despite seeing Roxas content often enough, I actually don’t know what he’s running for. And while campaign strategists might say this is a bad thing, a failure of the campaign; I think it’s a welcome change from the same content from majority of politicians on this algorithm: trend-dancing (from Janette Garin to Bong Revilla, Bam Aquino to Kiko Pangilinan, Isko Moreno etal—Imee Marcos has been doing it since late 2023), giving out ayuda from ampaw (Isko Moreno) to appliances (Vilma Santos / Luis Manzano), to bigas (that woman fighting it out with Vico Sotto in Pasig), to anyone at all who campaigns with Speaker Romualdez—who looks like corruption personified.

This is a tiny fraction of what is on this algorithm every day. It really is a display of the utter shamelessness with which politicians mount their campaigns. And it’s easy to know what the majority of content is, because when Paolo Roxas comes on, and his content is devoid of all these things, it just stands out.

That, and the fact that he is obviously not his father’s son. There is a charm here that his father could not even begin to muster, a connection with community that is not about looking down on them.

Recently, I saw a photograph of Pres. Manuel Roxas on a Philippines Free Press cover, and I thought: he looks familiar. I meant Paolo. The charm is there, too. Must’ve skipped a generation?

It is telling that my next thought is: well, at least someone will give Sandro, Baste, etal a run for their money. ***