No choice

About eight months from now we will elect our next President. At this time, people should already feel quite excited and optimistic as they see a brighter future for our country. The prevalent feeling by this time should be one of great expectation that what we desire after the present administration steps down in June 2016 will finally come to pass. The three aspirants for the presidency should inspire hope that we will finally realize the much needed reforms in the government we have been longing for since we gained independence.

In the early 1950s when I was still in high school, such kind of inspiring candidate emerged from the political horizon as he agreed to challenge then incumbent President  Elpidio Quirino in the scheduled presidential election. He was Ramon Magsaysay. At that time, people from all walks of life were abounding in good spirits. Everybody was full of hope that the plain and simple mechanic from Zambales with a track record of honesty, integrity and dedication to public service would be elected President.

He was indeed overwhelmingly elected as our President and started to render genuine public service based on the trust reposed on him by the electorate.  He became the embodiment of what a public officer should be: “at all times accountable to the people, served them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, acted with patriotism and justice, and led a modest life.” Unfortunately, he died in a plane crash, dashing all the peoples’ expectations on good governance and sending our country reeling back to the same kind of rotten government we have now.

And it is really sad to note that no one among the three declared aspirants for the presidency in the coming election has revived that kind of hope and feeling we had during the election in the early 50’s. No one among them can be said to be “another Ramon Magsaysay.” As we examine their record of public service, the more we become low in spirit because it seems that we will have more of the same kind of corrupt ridden and inefficient government we have now and in the past. So far, we seem to have no choice at all among the three declared aspirants, not even the “lesser evil.”

The results of the various poll surveys only show who among them is the most popular and with name recall. They do not prove at all that people will elect the one leading in the survey because he or she is qualified to lead the country. He or she leads the survey only because of the paid political ads and the publicity being generated by his/her spin master. Indeed, at this stage of the political game the prevailing feeling among the electorate is to simply refrain from going to the polling booth if they will just be made to choose any of the three declared candidates.

Right now people are still hoping that other candidates for the presidency and even the vice presidency will eventually emerge and declare their willingness to run. They want to have more choices aside from Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Manuel Roxas and Jejomar Binay.

Grace Poe-Llamanzares leads the poll surveys mainly because of her popularity as the adopted daughter of the late popular movie idol, Fernando Poe, Jr. But there are still some lingering and unanswered questions about her status as a natural-born citizen of the Philippines. Even her sense of patriotism has been placed in doubt because she once renounced her Philippine citizenship to pledge allegiance to the USA. And even if she has duly proven her status as a natural born Filipino, doubts still exist about her capability and competence to be president of this country. She should have more experience in running the affairs of the State than just serving as Senator for three years and acting as chairperson of the MTRCB. Because of her unpreparedness to tackle the job she might be like a little girl lost in our country’s murky political forest once elected.

Jejomar Binay also seems unworthy of our choice because of the various allegations of unjustly enriching himself and his family while holding office as Makati City Mayor since 1987. To be sure, the various exposes of graft, corruption and plunder leveled against him cannot simply be ignored and dismissed as untrue by bare denials on his part and by ascribing political motives to those who exposed them. Binay must show to the electorate that they are not true at all with concrete and sold proof duly presented in the court of law before he aspires to be our president. His promise to render the same kind of public service he made as Mayor of Makati City is quite deceptive and misleading. In fact such promise might boomerang against him taken in the light of the various anomalies now being attributed to him when he was mayor. If this is the kind of public service he will render as President, then he should not really be our choice.

Mar Roxas on the other hand appears to be quite different from Poe-Llamanzares and Binay. He seems to be free from any taint of corruption while in public office. And he really has enough experience and somewhat good record as Senator by introducing good laws that help our people especially on reducing the price of drugs and medicine for better health, and the promotion of the call center business in the country that boosts our economy. Nevertheless, his stints in the Executive Department especially in the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) show that he is not qualified and competent to be President. His inefficiency in rendering public service and tentative style of management and decision making will be detrimental to our country especially if he will just continue the matuwid na daan of P-Noy which is really so full of potholes of corruption.

Hence as we approach the coming election, we still hope that some other choices will eventually emerge in the political horizon.