The way it audits, there are definitely less assets and more liabilities to being the President of the Philippines. I am referring to an HONEST president of course, because for one without integrity, there is obviously much to be gained… at least while they are in power. And we don’t have to look too far to prove the point.
For a time it seemed like an honest president was virtually an oxymoron. We accepted the “inevitable venality” that occurred while entrenched in supremacy. Idealistic men and women who lost their way and transformed into arrogant, out-of-touch, self-centered, avaricious “public servants,” another oxymoron as self-interest becomes paramount in their actuations.
Let’s take a long hard look at an honest President’s six-year journey. Put yourself in his shoes — imagine if you will and empathize if you can.
After surviving a brutal campaign where everything from billions in adspend to fabricated black propaganda are thrown at you, you limp into office with a bruised psyche but suffused with hope, pride, a genuine desire to do good mixed with some degree of trepidation. You tell yourself that as long as the people are with you, with God’s help, you will succeed.
You walk into the Palace and inherit a humongous national debt, empty coffers and midnight appointments designed to delay and obstruct any attempt to fathom the actual lay of the land. Landmines have been thoughtfully placed at strategic positions: the Supreme Court, the Ombudsman, the Military, Police etc. etc. etc. Even seemingly innocuous positions were filled with pesky appointees, like gardeners and manicurists. Illegal, anomalous, unilateral contracts, all quickly signed-off for previous-cronies, lie in wait at various departments.
Undoing all these impediments takes precious time, but it must be done. Straightaway the opportunity to disparage presents itself: “What’s taking so long? Are you incompetent or just lazy? Why are you so obsessed with the past?” The shrillest critics were the ones most worried that a multitude of recent anomalies, including their own, might be uncovered.
You haven’t even warmed your seat and already a cacophony of whispering voices are vying for your ear. Approve this deal, appoint so and so for this or that office, take this side on this issue, bill, agreement or controversy. Everyone from kith and kin, nearest and dearest, insider and outsider, friend and foe, think that they have somehow earned a say if not a stake in the future.
It’s not always easy to discern motives, so you decide to choose those that you think you can trust. But not all that can be trusted are qualified and not all that are qualified can be trusted. For every mistake, you are crucified. For the star performers you picked, you just met the minimum requirement.
One by one you evaluate your predecessor’s bequest. As suspected, major institutions were damaged. The Military was hounded by dubious “traditions” like pasalubongs and pabaons. The National Police did not fare out any better with the Eurocop scandal. Corruption was institutionalized, permeating the highest echelon to the lowest level. When the former commander-in-chief sets the example, eradicates meritocracy and throws away the moral compass, can the organization avoid contamination? How long will it take to rebuild, and more important, to re-instill ethics within the rank-and-file?
The Judiciary is plagued with corruption, and public trust is negative. The Senate is filled with “pragmatic” politicos whose stands are fickle if not treacherous. And the Lower House denizens are generally pork-barrel-driven with a smattering of rapists, drug addicts, murderers and lots of clowns.
The quality of Health services and Education is sorely lacking: from wards to classrooms, doctors to teachers, and medicines to textbooks. Universal health insurance was misappropriated. The previously quoted macro-numbers were window-dressing. Add threatened food security, ever-rising oil, power and water prices, waste management and crumbling infrastructure and you have a to-do list longer than your term-of-office.
There is the perennial problem of poverty, under and un-employment escalating the ever-growing Filipino diaspora. Big business versus labor is an ongoing struggle. One side aims to preserve the status quo and acquire more affluence, the other wants a more equitable distribution of wealth. As President, you need to balance the opposing interests of both. You are between a rock and a hard place.
Or maybe you should concentrate on attracting foreign investments and tourism to boost a remittance-driven economy? Easier-said-than-done, when constant travel advisories warn of the Mindanao war, the terrorist, kidnap-for-ransom groups like Abu Sayyaf and JI. Let’s not forget the NPA death squads and the seasonal coup rumors. When it’s quiet on these fronts, there are always the warlords, political dynasties and private armies to stir a hornet’s nest.
Unforeseen crises such as earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons are also on your tab. If you didn’t respond fast enough or show yourself handing out relief packages while comforting a crying baby, you are taken to task. The local government instantly smells possible calamity funds. If you delay, then all accusing fingers are pointed at you. Never mind that it was the Mayor that allowed development on a fault line or let hyacinths clog the waterways!
You make good copy. So, as the song goes, “every step you take, every move you make…I’ll be watching you.” Every booboo is played up on TV, broadsheets, tabloids, magazines, radio, email, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs, some on real-time, others real-false. Any gain is on page 20-F, left side.
One guru explained the Media warts, “We are naturally skeptical. Media is imperfect, so is government.” Perhaps the more accurate description is cynical. Preconceived (albeit unverified) notions are reported as facts unless proven otherwise with the burden-of-proof resting on the subject. Demolish now, apologize later, is SOP.
What can be worse than a rambunctious and occasionally irresponsible Media? Media that is organized, accountable and retained by former presidents, candidates who lost and government officials who have something to hide. Add to the list, former public servants with their own agenda and self-anointed members of the hypercritical, condescending, I-am-smarter-than-all-of-you Intelligentsia. Top it off with shadowy, out-of-work PR agents with feral/fiscal loyalties. These are the ones who morph into vicious trolls and the AC-DC (attack-collect, defend-collect) tribe. Fortunately, you can spot them a mile away.
It’s not standard fare, but you might also have nine Chinese ships prowling on disputed shores, and a North Korean missile launching some few hundred kilometers away.
Oh, did I mention that RA4134 grants you all these for a grand salary of P60,000 a month?
Excluding nuisance candidates, one hundred filed for the 2010 presidential election. Nine went on to run the whole nine yards. One won with 14M+ votes, roughly 41 percent of total ballots, the most massive victory in many years. And he was the one that had to be persuaded to take on the challenge.
So who wants to be President?
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