Quit Manny Quit

Dear Manny Pacquiao,

I wrote about you in this column a few months back predicting that if elections were held at that time, you would have easily won because of your vast popularity. Almost immediately, I received several objections to what I wrote because it was understood as an endorsement of your candidacy. I did not ask my readers to vote for you next year. I did not endorse you, Manny. What I did was merely emphasize the obvious, the pluses on your side, your popularity most of all, the possibility that you will most probably not be corrupted because you are already a billionaire. I also mentioned that your advocacy for the elimination of poverty which you, yourself, had experienced was most probably sincere.

I know that you recognize your weaknesses, and I can see that your English has also tremendously improved. Sometimes on television, you make statements that I know are beyond your intellectual reach and vocabulary. You sound so unreal, and you seem insincere and out of character. I know that you have not read what I wrote, for if you were a good politician, you should have dropped me a thank you note or called me up, but you did not. It is not out of a sense of pique that I am writing this, I’m much too old and experienced to bother with petty social shortcomings. I mention this in relation to your need to understand basic PR practice, whether you are in politics or not.

What I must tell you now is what I really feel and which I hope you will be able to read, ingest and understand. And please, Manny, I wish you well for I know and I hail your contribution to our country.

Manny, you are on top of the heap. You don’t have to climb any further. You have achieved what no Filipino has done, and you are very secure.

Of course, you are more than qualified to run for president. Erap, Cory and Noynoy became president with no real qualities of leadership, intelligence or experience in the art of governing, and yet, they were able to get to Malacañang. In the sense, you are far better than them and so many of the politicians who are now in Congress.

Knowledge is not Wisdom

Knowledge is not wisdom. It helps a lot of course to know so much, and now, even the most complex equations are on a pad and at your fingertips. Wisdom is how one applies that knowledge not just for himself but for others, his people, humankind. The truly learned man is he who knows himself, and it is here where he must know the limits of his ego. Deep within you, you must have surely known yourself the day you joined the Senate – you don’t belong there. Now you want to be president. Former Justice Carpio said that the post is beyond your competence. It is pure honesty, it is wisdom to recognize this, Manny – what you had burning within you all these years.

Remember Dolphy rejecting political nomination because he didn’t know what to do if he won? I wrote about how Wilfrido V. Villacorta, accomplished Ph.D. educator, declined a high government position because it was beyond his competence. That did not diminish him. It lifted him instead. To conclude this argument, may I remind you that it is the ego of leaders that destroyed efforts at unifying organizations, institutions and alas, even nations!

Let me tell you what you might do with the money that you have made. May I suggest that you leave a legacy that will institutionalize what we have learned from your rise to the top.

Our country has no educational institution that will promote athletics. Make them world class enough to bring home gold medals from the Olympics. I suggest that you found such an institution and tie it up with a government university. For me, the best place would be Davao. The UP Campus there is so huge, it can accommodate a sports complex and dormitories for students. The university not only trains athletes but also coaches and teachers. It may even revive or popularize indigenous sports like sipa.

And now, for the coming elections, I ask you to discard your presidential ambition. More than this, I suggest this course of action that will lift you from the swamp of what is now traditional Filipino politics to the ozone heights of noble statesmanship marked by selflessness. This, Manny, is the first important quality of a great leader. All the rest follow: integrity, courage, compassion.

Former Justice of the Supreme Court, Antonio Carpio, has bluntly stated that you are not fit for the presidency because you are incompetent. Please do not take this too personally. Justice Carpio is judicious and compassionate, and he did not apply to you any label that mars your personal honor and dignity in the same way so much outrageous labelling is being made today by politicians against their enemies.

Why Antonio Carpio

For the first time in so many years, this country has a man that, in my mind at this very moment, should succeed President Duterte. In his many years as a public servant, he has worked efficiently without a single taint of corruption to his name. His nationalism is unsullied as best illustrated today in his defense of our sovereignty against China’s intransigence. You must have learned firsthand by now of the corruption in the highest enclaves of power, that to change this country, the justice system is the first that must be dismantled and rebuilt. For this job, Carpio is the right man to lead an apathetic people in pursuing the national purpose, the building of a just and sovereign nation.

How wonderful if a man of your outstanding stature and popularity proclaims your support for Antonio Carpio and that you will go all over the country to validate that support. I make this suggestion for I know that behind all this craving for attention, deep within you and your epic past, you are humble and deeply rooted with the masa to which you and I were born.