I WILL not begrudge BBM's traveling all over with his barkada, the latest of which was to Davos with an entourage of 70, including several two-faced businessmen prominent in financing the People Power Revolution that booted the Marcos père out. But then again, it is the nature of the beast to kiss the ass of the powerful. And they are critical components in BBM's rebranding of the Marcos name to the international community, which could be the underlying purpose of these sorties.

His gallivanting — seven trips in 8 months ostensibly seeking investments from abroad — would be forgiven if he can truly get foreign direct investments (FDI) to flow in. Reportedly, he got pledges from Jakarta ($8.50billion), Singapore ($6.54 billion) and China ($23 billion). But China's pledges are suspect. We had similar ones during Duterte's presidency when he vouchsafed fealty to Xi in that famous 'I simply love Xi Jinping' trip to China in 2018, conceding our negotiating advantage on the arbitral tribunal ruling that negated the nine-dash line, and the subsequent humiliation our fishermen suffered, prevented from fishing on their traditional fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea. Our country lost its collective hymen, with nothing to show for it in return.