AS Vice President Leni Robredo loved to do in her sorties, she read out placards brought out by the audience near the stage.

At the Takder Kordi rally at the Melvin Jones football grounds in Baguio City, one of the placards she read was "Bus Lang Ang Solid North."

It drew one of the loudest cheers among the 30,000 who joined the rally.

This refers to the Solid North Bus Lines which was established in 2010 and primarily plied the Pangasinan-Manila route.

The Baguio rally was the one where the predominantly young audience repeatedly chanted "Awan ti Solid North" (There's No Solid North).

But a week later, the country realized again that the Solid North was still alive and growing.

Ilocos Norte, according to the partial count, voted 97.225 for its hometown son and former governor if they were in a head-to-head contest with outgoing VP Leni Robredo.

That was the highest win percentage for Ferdinand Marcos Jr. among all provinces in the country.

The Ilocos region voted 89.23 percent for Marcos if the election were one-on-one against Robredo.

But the two other regions in the Solid North gave Marcos a higher percentage win.

Cagayan Valley recorded 90.74 and the Cordillera went even higher with 91.37 in a head-to-head contest with Robredo.

The only time Regions I and II (Cordillera was then distributed between the two regions) voted solidly was in 1986 when Ferdinand Marcos Sr. won over Corazon Aquino in the Snap Elections.

As the placard said, Bus lang ang Solid North. And this bus only carried the Marcoses to the elections.