Noynoy among top 5 choices for president

CEBU, Philippines - Liberal Party presidential bet, Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III was one of top choices among the 10 presidentiables during the forum on understanding choices entitled “Genuine Leadership and Good Governance: How shall we lead the Philippines in 2010?”, wherein the participants were given a scorecard to determine genuine leadership.

However, of the 200 participants, only 40 percent or about 80 of the scorecards were tabulated as of 6:00 last night.

Partial and unofficial results showed that Aquino is leading, followed by Senator Manuel Villar, while Senators Loren Legarda and Vice President Noli de Castro tied on the third spot. Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro occupied the fourth spot.

The scorecard entitled “9 marks of genuine leadership” has designated nine parameters or standards to rate a candidate. These are: people and service-oriented, accountable, open and transparent, responsive and decisive, fair and impartial, competent and effective, a model of integrity and spirituality, a consensus builder, and has strategic vision and is creative.

Aside from the five, other presidentiables included in the list are Senator Richard Gordon, former President Joseph Estrada, Jesus is Lord Movement founder and president Eddie Villanueva, and Center for Alternative Development president Nicanor Perlas.

Eddie Alih, one of the speakers during the forum, said that leadership is not of a personal attribute but a collective transfer of that trust to lead.

“Whichever the fate of the nation takes a turn, strong leadership depends on the strength of the people. The stronger the people, the more there is stability in leadership. The converse is true. But it is also dangerous. Weakness of the people feeds political ambitions of leaders and perpetuates oppression and injustices,” he added. Alih is an awardee of the Ramon Aboitiz Award for Exemplary Individual.

Further, he said that automation of the election process may prove to be a way out of the mess in the polls but there are reasonable apprehension that even the sophisticated of machine is still subject to human determination to get even.

The half-day event involves the discussions on the qualities of a good public servant as well as on drawing civic participation in attaining good governance.

The forum provides the attendees inputs and facilitates the understanding of what the leaders, especially the next President of the country, should prioritize in 2010 and facilitate the attainment of human and sustainable development.

The forum aims to provide local chief executives and other government officials, civil society and business leaders, the academe, the youth and the general public a forum to discuss a current and very important issue that affects the lives of the people and to encourage and elicit ideas and support from the government, civil society, the community and the private sector towards a more informed and sound decision of how our country should be led come 2010 as well as on how to effect good governance.

Teresa Fernandez, one of the speakers, said that the test of good leaders is whether they are able to develop as many people who can be leaders themselves and who are responsible enough to assume responsibilities in their own arena.

“Power is capacity to change things or situation or capacity to influence. It is not a commodity that one can own and deprive others for exercising theirs. One can have power without depriving others of their own,” said Fernandez who is the founder and executive director of the Lihok Filipina Foundation, Inc.

Roberto Aboitiz, president of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. in his opening message and rationalé of the forum said that it is our challenge as a people to understand the complexity and dynamics of good governance, to understand the role and responsibilities of citizenship, and to select principled leaders to manage the affairs of the government. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV   NLQ   (FREEMAN NEWS)