Stop voting for “second-rate, trying-hard copycats”

If Cherrie Gil is to run for senator today, she would easily beat a Bar topnotcher like Koko Pimentel. They are both copycats of their respected parents, but Cherrie and Koko can stand on their own merits and credentials. Others are running merely to follow their fathers or mothers. Some people believe that public service is hereditary.

A town or a city is not a family corporation. It should not be governed by the same family over a number of years. In the same manner, children of former presidents or former vice presidents do not necessarily deserve to replace their fathers or mothers.

Assuming that a father or a mother proved himself or herself to be a good mayor or governor, does it follow that the son, the daughter, or the grandchild would also become a good town or provincial executive? The answer to that question is of course: It does not follow. Then why do voters keep on perpetuating this incongruity in Philippine politics?

Besides, the political leadership in any town or, for that matter, any province, any congressional district, is not hereditary. It is not bequeathed as a legacy or an inheritance by way of intestate succession. The town or the province is not a family business.

Thus, voters should stop electing children of ageing and retiring trapos who are trying-hard copycats, not to mention second-rate imitators of their parents. I observed that Imee Marcos, the daughter of the late dictator, is running for senator. She should be judged on her own merits, if any, and not voted upon simply because she is the eldest child of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

In the same manner, Nancy Binay does not necessarily follow as deserving to be in the Senate again just because her father was vice president. The voters should judge her on her own qualifications, if any.

Then there is Grace Poe whose claim to fame has always been the simple fact that she was an adopted daughter of Fernando Poe Jr and Susan Roces. Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito should be measured on the basis of their own individual fitness and merit, and not simply because they are sons of the famous Erap Estrada.

Sonny Angara should make a name for himself and not merely rely on the shadow of his late father, Ed Angara. I will vote for Angara on his own merits. The same is true for Koko Pimentel who, in his ads, always reminds the people that he is the son of the one and only Nene Pimentel. But Koko is my number one senator because of his own credentials and performance.

The most desperate of them all is Bam Aquino who tries his very best to look like the late Ninoy Aquino by his looks and by his eyeglasses. But I will not vote for him. Bam is not even a speck compared to the great Ninoy. TJ Guingona has stopped running for the Senate. He has always been compared to his well-known and much-respected father, Vice President Teofisto Guingona. I would have voted for him.

So, sons or daughters who aspire for high offices merely because of the fame and popularity of their fathers and mothers should start standing on their own competence, character, and commitment. Children of famous parents should stop being the clones of their ascendants.