President Noynoy as an honest Erap

In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.

— Warren Buffett

It is anathema to this writer to rate President Noynoy C. Aquino the way various pundits and experts have assessed his first 100 days. But since I’ve received a lot of e-mails and groups asking me to be a guest speaker to assess his performance, I would give him a B+ for effort and B for accomplishments.

Why the higher grades than what other pundits have given him? Majority of us voters put Noynoy into the presidency not for intellectual brilliance, great leadership track record or decisive personality, but for his good character and integrity, so my expectations of his administration have been realistically adjusted.

In terms of upholding his reputation for Cory Aquino-like integrity and humility, President Aquino has done exceedingly well with his “No wang-wang” pronouncements and his eating a hotdog sandwich in New York lifestyle. Ask the ordinary man or woman on the street or the corporate executive in his office towers and he will say our President is a humble, simple-living and sincere leader that they can trust. In this aspect of presidential leadership, Noynoy has not failed the public and his voters.

What about the perceived leadership bungling with regard to the seemingly mediocre choice of Cabinet-level officials and the intramurals among his executives, as well as the high-profile failure to efficiently resolve the Hong Kong hostage crisis plus the much-criticized presidential action after the investigations?

All this, I think, points to us that so far Aquino seems to be an “honest Erap” in the making, a description that is neither pejorative nor complimentary, but a statement of fact. I see him as an honest version of the folksy and populist ex-President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, with less brilliance in the nitty-gritty, hands-on managerial skills of a Gloria Arroyo or Fidel Ramos, with less of the intellectual command and decisive personality of Ferdinand Marcos, but immensely popular and trusted nevertheless by the people like Erap or Fernando Poe Jr.

But the stark difference between Noynoy and Erap is that our incumbent president is honest, which means he has not been accused of and will not indulge in any gambling at a casino or poker or mahjong, or indulging himself in liquor, or even receiving illegal jueteng money from the likes of Governor Chavit Singson or Atong Ang. The worst accusations on gaming imputed against Noynoy during the last election was his allegedly being addicted to PlayStation, for which his younger sister Kris Aquino once called me up to say it was “totally untrue.” In fact, Kris told me that Noy didn’t know what a PlayStation was when he saw one that belonged to her son Joshua. Kris added that it is actually she and her other sisters who are really fond of playing it.

On presidential friends, the worst accusations of so-called “wrong friends” imputed on President Noynoy Aquino is only that of his gun-loving buddy, the controversial DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno, who looks to me like a saint vis-a-vis the likes of Erap buddies Atong Ang or (ex-friend) Chavit Singson.

At the national convention of the Drugstores Association of the Philippines (DSAP) in Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City, one of the most well-applauded portions of my speech assessing the state of the nation and the Philippines’ economic prospect under Noynoy was the part about his being an honest Erap. The audience of 1,000 small- and medium-scale drugstore entrepreneurs seemed startled when I described President Noynoy as an honest Erap.

However, I explained that I meant it in a positive and really optimistic light. I asked them that as entrepreneurs, would they prefer as the manager of their store, an honest and sincere person with average intellect and ordinary work habits, or an intellectually bright and smart person who is dishonest and steals?

I asserted that Noynoy is like the honest and sincere manager of the drugstore that is the Philippines, and that it is good enough that he is trying his best and maybe surprise us with his hidden brilliance or moral courage.

In the book The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett (his daughter-in-law) and David Clark, the world’s wealthiest and greatest investor alive today, Warren Buffett is quoted as saying: “When you hire someone to run your business, you are entrusting him or her with the piggy bank. If these people are smart and hardworking, they are going to make you a lot of money, but if they aren’t honest, they will find lots of clever ways to make all your money theirs.”

I believe President Aquino will make various mistakes throughout his term, but he will never make the mistake of dishonesty, lying to the public or plundering the state coffers. I believe this fact is a source of hope for real socio-political and economic reforms, and hopefully progress.

Of course, I’m a realist and I base my optimism on the premise that Noynoy is an honest Erap who can unify the people behind him, but we also wish and pray that there’s a crouching tiger and hidden dragon within his persona who will crack the whip on erring or incompetent leaders, push for unpopular reforms, and finally build up a globally competitive Philippine economy.

While other banks and rating agencies forecast six to seven percent economic growth for the Philippines this year, I personally believe that we can achieve and must aim for eight percent from 2010 up to the end of his term. As the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FFCCCII) president Dr. Alfonso Uy recently told me: “We must all work together and aim for at least eight percent sustained annual economic growth rate for several years in the Philippines in order for us to truly overcome massive poverty and social justices in our society.”

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