This is the first time in more than four years of P-Noy’s presidency when I wholeheartedly and fully agree with him. And I think that almost “all his bosses” also agree with him and fully share his hope that his successor will not be himself; that in the coming 2016 Presidential elections he will not be the Liberal Party’s candidate for president.
For record purposes and so that he will not claim again that he is misquoted, these are his exact words in tagalog during the “Agenda Setting with Dialogue Partners” held at the Rizal Hall of Malacanang last Friday in the presence of Congress leaders, political allies and other alleged “reformists”: “Darating po ang panahon para sa pagpili ng kandidato na magpapatuloy ng ating tuwid na daan. Sana po hindi ako ang kandidatong iyon” (“Indeed the time will soon come when the straight path will choose a new candidate. I hope it isn’t me”).
To his audience in the Palace identified as his “dialogue partners” but who are actually his die hard supporters known as the yellow brigade, he sounded like he is joking as his statement drew laughter from them. This is expected and understandable because they want PNoy to stay longer so they can continue enjoying the perks and trappings of power. But the rest of us Filipinos who love our country are not laughing because we seriously believe that PNoy should not be his own successor,
Like PNoy, we also hope he will not be his own successor because this will entail so much waste of time and money. We will have to undergo another expensive political exercise of amending our charter. With less than two years before the 2016 presidential elections, it is quite impractical and costly for us to change the charter just to enable PNoy to run for president again and succeed himself. Even if Congress is under his thumb and he can again blitz the approval of the amendments through said body acting as a Constituent Assembly (Con Ass), there will still be substantial amounts of time and public money spent in the process which could be better used for other more worthy public purpose.
For sure, most Filipinos fervently hope and pray that P-Noy will step down at the end of his term or even right now, because during the past four years, they have found out that he is the most unprepared and unqualified president we ever had. Looking back, it seems clear now that Filipinos really made a wrong choice last 2010 or the machines used for the first time in said election made the wrong choice for them. There is no doubt now that the electorate in the 2010 elections just got carried away by the media hype over the death of his mother exploited by his party to assure its return to power. As in the past elections but most especially in that election, voters did not give much attention to the qualifications of the candidates but on their ability to stir the emotions and generate sympathy votes.
Majority of the Filipinos are really hoping and praying that our charter will not be changed anymore enabling P-Noy to run again because they now realize that his administration is more of form than substance. He has repeatedly boasted of the positive results of his straight and narrow path and of the reforms implemented by his administration. But what is happening in our country now shows exactly the opposite. And when confronted with the present situation especially about the more rampant graft and corruption, the breakdown in peace and order where the policemen themselves are involved, the deterioration of public transport, the continuing poverty in the land despite the supposed economic gains where only the rich are getting richer while the poor gets even poorer, he refuses to accept them. Instead he insists on his alleged straight path and continues to defend his officials while at the same time blaming the past administration.
People really wish and pray deep in their hearts that P-Noy’s successor will be somebody else because they have seen that while he continues to project an image of a reformist president out to eliminate graft and corruption in this country, he has even increased the pork barrel known as the PDAF which is generally accepted as the biggest source of corruption. And worse here is that he even surreptitiously created his own pork barrel known as the DAP which is supposedly an economic stimulus program of his government. Obviously, his words speak louder than his actions.
His words indeed speak louder than his actions when he also said during the forum in Malacanang that: “My first priority has always been what will be good for all and not just for now but also for future generation of Filipinos.” Yet he is the only president who aggressively pushed for the passage of the RH law sponsored by foreign lobbyists even to the extent of reportedly using the PDAF to convince members of Congress to pass it. As it is now turning out the law is more for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the contraceptives that will be purchased by the government for distribution and use especially by poor people who cannot afford them. And as it is now also being shown, the use of these contraceptives has adverse effects not only on the life and health of Filipinos but also on the moral welfare especially of the future generations as it promotes sexual promiscuity among the youth that eventually leads to abortion because of unwanted pregnancies. Indeed, right now, there are already moves to justify abortion in some instances and include the proposal in our Code of Crimes.
Let us all hope and pray that P-Noy will not succeed himself into the presidency also because of his self righteousness. He cannot accept his mistake and justifies his wrong actions allegedly with good intentions. And this is very obvious in his reaction when the Supreme Court declared his DAP, the PDAF and some provisions of the RH law unconstitutional. He disregarded the principle of separation of powers and checks and balances under our constitution by frontally attacking the SC and threatening to clip its powers as an independent and separate branch of government.
P-Noy may really be joking when he expressed that hope. But let us all work hard and pray that said hope come true.
E-mail: attyjosesison@gmail.com