The Long View
A peculiar chicken
By Manuel L. Quezon III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:23:00 09/24/2009
Anding Roces’ famous short story involves his brother’s peculiar chicken, which exhibited every outward sign of being a rooster – until it laid an egg one day. This brings up the question of the President’s peculiar chicken, which her ruling party has been holding up as an example of remarkable political plumage, in the hope that this will dazzle the electorate enough to prevent Gilbert Teodoro Jr. from laying an electoral egg in 2010.
The problem is that the President’s own secretary of foreign affairs announced his intention to back a different bird altogether, so to speak.
Alberto Romulo has told reporters he’s always been for the Aquinos, conveniently forgetting that he has been standing by the President all these years. Which brings up the inconvenient question of why he backed the President when it mattered but won’t back her anointed successor when he has far less to bring to the campaign. Or is that the reason he is suddenly born again as a true believer in the Aquinos?
His son, Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, tried to downplay his father’s announcement by saying he’s going to stand by the President’s Anointed One. But this brings up another inconvenient question: Can the elder Romulo afford to recover his political values at the sunset of his public life while his son puts pragmatism ahead of idealism at the dawn of his political career.
But then that only goes to show the nature of the ruling coalition, and by extension the true color of its candidate. Compared to the sunshiny yellow of the leading candidate, Noynoy Aquino, the administration has dipped its peculiar chicken in olive drab. If, in a sense, Aquino has been wrapped in the flag – the red, white, and blue of honesty, integrity, and good governance with the yellow rays of optimism shining through – the administration has presented itself as a kind of armored fighting vehicle, cocooning its peculiar chicken in the armor of “where is your evidence, bring it to the proper forum,” knowing all the forums are government-controlled.
By all accounts the peculiar chicken of the ruling coalition is a rootin’ tootin’ rooster, ready to crow and anxious to show he has pretty sharp spurs for fighting. But these are spurs earned and honed in an arena where the very things that make the leading candidate formidable – he would not collaborate, he would not consent, he wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the very things that have made the ruling coalition an example of power maintained with an undemocratic contempt for the electorate – have been rendered inconsequential.
The problem is that these things matter; in fact, they have always mattered except that they have been rendered ineffective for a limited time only. And that limited time is just about over, much as the ruling coalition had done its damnedest to postpone or even cancel the day of democratic reckoning. The administration is entering the presidential contest not out of its own free will, but rather, because it ultimately failed to be the master of events. It survived, but it failed to abolish its constitutional expiration date.
Roman Romulo gamely tried to promote the administration’s peculiar chicken by indirectly indicting the ruling coalition. During his period in the defense department, the younger Romulo argued, no scandal involving corruption affected Teodoro.
But this only reinforces the view that when it comes to honesty, integrity, and good governance, the administration doesn’t have a fighting chance. If any other Cabinet member had ventured an opinion similar to Alberto Romulo’s, you wonder if it would have unleashed Lorelei Fajardo. The reason anyone cares about what Romulo said is his unique reputation among the members of the Cabinet. He has remained pretty much a gentleman, his personal honesty and integrity intact, and the most our diplomats can say about the governance of his department is that he is so prudent as to be practically powerless.
So when the elder Romulo says he will return to first principles, it’s the contrast between this elder gentleman showing that even if he strayed away, he isn’t beyond redemption (but only to a point; he could have gone all the way and resigned), and the younger politician trying to prove he’s a trooper when it comes to a despised ruling coalition, that stands out. Which is why Fajardo had to come out and make heavy hints that if the foreign secretary doesn’t pipe down, the President might consider firing him. In the end, this remains the administration’s most effective weapon in tempering the idealism of its officials: Don’t forget on which side your bread is buttered, thank you very much, or do you want to be a true has-been like the Lakas “originals”?
The elder Romulo said he will vote for Noynoy out of loyalty to the Aquinos, which may be an act of personal repentance and restitution but ignores why the Aquinos parted ways with the Romulos: on points of principle. So in the end, the only thing the elder Romulo can do is say that he will go to his precinct and cast his vote for Aquino, while his son will vote for Teodoro, canceling out daddy’s vote while retaining the Romulo political infrastructure in Pasig City as part of the administration machine. Which makes his father’s expression of intent an exercise in political futility.
That is the administration’s game. It has never conceded that it has so decisively lost in the court of public opinion, having determined that so long as it retains control of the instruments of state – the institutions that determine official culpability and accountability – the country can writhe in outrage for all that anyone in the ruling coalition cares.
Their peculiar chicken can crow all he wants, he can strut around proclaiming platforms and political positions all he wants, he can make all the “right” noises because he stands for a coalition that has clung to power and become bloated from doing all the wrong things, without any real consequences for its members.
sa ‘mayroon’, sa ‘wala’, is it going to be logro diyes? no, no, no, not even logro tres.
why did the chicken (older romulo) crossed the road?
malamang ay dahil wala nang magandang future na maaninag sa administration party.
“So in the end, the only thing the elder Romulo can do is say that he will go to his precinct and cast his vote for Aquino, while his son will vote for Teodoro, canceling out daddy’s vote . . . ”
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Isn’t that the practice with most political families/dynasties? It isn’t a first, nor will it be the last.
Whoa there Mr. Sabungero. Not so fast with your paeans for your chicken. Please note that the opportunist is neither voting for what the candidate is nor for what he can do. He is voting because of Cory, out of gratitude. To think that we go to such lengths to remind the mal-educated masa not to sell their votes, and vote for the right reasons instead!
This is not to say that Berto shouldn’t be grateful to Cory for allowing him to serve. On the other hand, Gloria should be grateful to him for allowing her the run his Office the way it shouldn’t be. I’m not saying though that, out of gratitude, she should also vote for Noynoy. But why not if the kid deserves her vote or ours. Hehehe.
My heart doesn’t bleed for the career officials who were bypassed by political proteges. It bleeds because she has to do the job herself after rendering our foreign posts dysfunctional. Assuming that she gives back our money’s worth!
Inspite of Alberto Romulo’s statement he’s with Noynoy out of respect for his former boss Cory, it’s hard to believe he’s doing it out of gratitude. For why should Romulo be grateful to a person who’s gone and not grateful to his present boss who gave him his job.?
There must be some very strong underlying reason for his actions.
‘Tis the season for loyalty checks, it seems, as in “are you with us or against us?” Seriously, I think a key question in our ongoing debate about whether the crusade behind Noy’s camp should be supported truly centres around the company that he keeps.
Namely, did the initial core group that clamoured for his candidacy do so out of a genuine thirst for reform and good governance? Or are they simply disgruntled former GMA supporters who did not get their “share of the winnings”? The “noise” of destabilisers not genuinely appalled by the “noise” of misgovernance that they allege she represents.
They seem all too eager to coalesce with Erap and his ilk who were shut out of the “spoils” ongoing under GMA. Erap’s repudiation of their offer being a principled thing, if their true motives are to share the future spoils with him in exchange for his blessing.
If it turns out that this is just the continuation of the “game”, one group seeking temporary ascendancy over another, then it will be yet another betrayal of the people’s hopes and dreams. Another roadblock to reform. I would hope that this is not the case, that redemption is truly possible. That we have learnt to end the cycle of rapacious rent seeking and booty capitalism. But alas, it could very well be the opposite.
I am simply posing the question, although I think it would be nearly impossible to verify the answer. If this is a distinct possibility, then I hope Noy, if he truly wishes to honour the Aquino legacy devices a way to separate the wheat from the chaff and innoculate his prospective administration from these corrosive forces. The problem with this of course is, how?
bert, there’s feelings of guilt -and a desire to expiate. the desire to reclaim one’s soul.
“bert, there’s feelings of guilt -and a desire to expiate. the desire to reclaim one’s soul.”
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Does it really go that deep? Bert Romulo is a gentleman, to be sure. But reclaiming one’s soul might be reading too deeply into the situation. I would tend to go along with what The Cusp dreads. That “this is just the continuation of the “game—.
I am not being blasé about the political games the elite play. Just that this is an old trick from their playbook.
Inspite of Alberto Romulo’s statement he’s with Noynoy out of respect for his former boss Cory, it’s hard to believe he’s doing it out of gratitude. For why should Romulo be grateful to a person who’s gone and not grateful to his present boss who gave him his job.?
There must be some very strong underlying reason for his actions. – Bert
Bert,
If we go with Carl’s vetting that the older Romulo is a gentleman (and maybe necessarily a statesman) and Manolo’s “he is so prudent as to be practically powerless,†he may not need to go deep into his soul to make a prudent gentleman’s choice; simply hearkening to his innermost gut could be enough “underlying reason for his actions.â€
I’ll say Carl is not that old to go that deep. The 76 yr old gentleman who amusingly claimed to be both a domestic helper and today an OFW (referring to Exec Sec and then DFA Sec) knew the importance and impact of information.
In his address to the Press Club in 2004:
“Words and thoughts have a power never seen before. Ideas can circle the world twice over before you can finish your first sip of coffee. We learn of events halfway around the world mere moments after they happen.”
“It is a fast-paced world that calls on us to have a clear idea of where we see ourselves and how we hope to engage others.”
At his twilight years, Dr. Alberto Romulo can only speak for his own soul. I completely agree with you, Manolo.
Berto will go clerking for Gloria at the DFA ’til the end of her term. He closes his eyes at what is going on in his department for the money. Anyway, he will always be Dr. Alberto Romulo, except to me, perhaps. Anyway, he can always repent and be forgiven, more so if he secretly supports Noynoy as a way of making amends to reclaim a soul that he presumably may still have. Herein lies the beauty of our Christian belief.
This is something I learned from old folks, they shoot straight from the heart on things that really matters to them.
A yes man for all these years is bound to express his most important thought and hope to engage the Filipinos when it is their time to make a difference.
Let’s get back to that peculiar chicken -Gilberto Teodoro because he is largely faceless which is the main weapon to deflect the administration corruption image.
“Cuenco noted that many lawmakers may opt not to talk about their preference this early, FEARING their pork barrel allocations might be cut off by Malacañang.”…Inquirer
Another proof of pork barrel influence among politicians.
Let’s push for the abolition of pork barrel in 2010 elections. Any takers from among the presidentiables, future senators and congressmen?
I can only guess that Romulo is a member of the ‘Wait for 2010’ crowd and is just sticking to his deadline.
“made the ruling coalition an example of power maintained with an undemocratic contempt for the electorate”
“The administration is entering the presidential contest not out of its own free will, but rather, because it ultimately failed to be the master of events. It survived, but it failed to abolish its constitutional expiration date.”
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Manolo, this is chilling since this is no longer about respecting the democratic will of the people but rather get things done through party machinery to perpetuate control. Gilbert Teodoro Jr is the perfect chicken of choice because he is young at 45 understandably less baggage (effective against gov’t corruption image) and efficient in execution of orders. People don’t realize however, he is the youngest Filipino to hold a very sensitive cabinet position as Defense Secretary at age 43. When emergency powers was flouted this year, the leak was through Angelo Reyes. But in tight security cluster, it is always the Defense Secretary who does all the scenarios for the President particularly the legal justifications.
To recall, 36 years ago Ferdinand Marcos picked up a bar topnotcher and a Harvard Law school master to become his Defense Secretary and became one of the architect of Martial Law and provided its legal basis – Juan Ponce Enrile. This time, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had chosen another bar topnotcher and a Harvard Law school master to become the youngest Defense Secretary and reliable right hand man – Gilbert Teodoro Jr.
This is a very peculiar chicken loaded with danger so to speak.
Call it what you want, in simple English it’s called hedging. In Tagalog it’s called “namamangka sa dalawang ilog”. It’s a common, rather hackneyed, political tactic used by the elite.
For those who want to be sappy or cheesy about it, OK, go with “reclaiming one’s soul”. Methinks that’s reading too much into the tea leaves, though.
Already, my chicken, Gibo is picking up on the surveys. He will be on top of the heap a week or two before the elections. That is when the funds are already in the hands of the machinery. That is also the time when it will breakdown. Each man for himself.
Every member of the frankenstein coalition will fight for their own survival. But no matter. When the minds of the electorate have already been conditioned, a machine generated dagdag-bawas will go unnoticed. Surely, there will be sporadic protests and deaths here in there but that will be all there to it. (Did spilt blood on the streets matter in Iran?)
Of course the over zealous armies of the opposition are not wholely unaware of this so, they will concentrate their forces around the seeming hapless enememy, but this is precisely what Gloria wants them to do because while they’re at it the bulk of her forces can do their thing freely. It will be 2007 all over again. It was already too late when the opposition found out that their victory in the Senate was hollow. It was the composition of Congress that mattered!
What can even a reinvigorated and reinvented Noynoy and a powerhouse Senate do if Gloria still controls Congress? This thing about a prime ministerhip for her is nothing but a scarecrow, much like the phoney conass, but apparently it is again proving to be effective. Even intelectuals such as the likes of Randy David and Atty. Harry Roque are obviously falling for it.
Gloria does not need a cha-cha to save herself. All she needs is her powerful and shameless Girl Friday whom we sometimes call Ombudsman. And she will be there for as long as Gloria calls the shot at the lowest house. Rejoice my friends, Gibo and I will be coming to town to continue what Gloria has been doing so well. Hehehe.
If the PP2RC (People Power II Reunited Coalition) is simply a rehash of old politics by one section of the elite, then in fact, there is no difference between them and the Frankenstein Coalition. Romulo’s so-called “collarboration” is actually a valliant effort (better it be him, than someone bereft of ethics, unable to “moderate greed”).
Further, it makes Noy just like any other candidate (even worse actually for providing the illusion of moral authority, when it won’t have the capacity to deliver). We are then back to deciding who represents the least of all evils.
there were 3 major issues in the past few days, RFID, SIM registration, and VFA.
Nonoy is silent on all. Teddy Casino can put together a press release. why can’t Nonoy (or Chiz, or Villar) ?
yes cusp, thats how is it.
“Further, it makes Noy just like any other candidate (even worse actually for providing the illusion of moral authority, when it won’t have the capacity to deliver).”-The Cusp
That’s what I call reading too deeply into the crystal ball.
That’s quite a logical leap, Cusp, ignoring as it does, sentiments on the ground, the very thing propelling the candidacy -and ignoring how the candidacy is only now coming together, organizationally, while the others have had years to put together their teams.
again, no administration, ever, at any time, has ever lost the house. but this has never prevented presidents not from the previously ruling party to essentially appoint a new speaker at will. the house only guarantees survivial; it does not guarantee success; the hollow victory was not the opposition’s, it was the administration’s, because they wanted, but failed, to seize the senate. and by failing to do so their plans were thwarted bringing them to a complication they never wanted to face: an election without an incumbent seeking re-election as president.
dodong, except teodoro will have to relinquish the defense portfolio sometime between november 30, the filing of candidacy, and february, the start of the actual campaign. personally i think this is convenient and ties into previous scuttlebutt that the president’s people wanted him shifted from dnd to justice. it will be interesting to see if it’s ebdane or esperon who becomes dnd chief, both of whom can look back to their experience helping the president get elected in 2004.
Is it really reading too much and too big a logical leap? I am merely playing devil’s advocate here.
Hasn’t the anti-GMA campaign been organising since 2005? It was spearheaded by Cory herself. Now they have found their champion in Noynoy due to the public outpouring of sympathy for Cory. What if the “Society of Sour Graping” is all there is?
After the election, when the euphoria fades, it will be this core group that might take over where the previous lot left off. This is what Erap’s men predicted would happen under GMA, during the impeachment trial (why was she so eager to take the reins at that point they said?), and by and large, prima facie, the treachery has materialised.
I am simply taken aback by the villification of people like Romulo. It sounds too much like the Inquisition to me.
Cusp, it depends on whether you think 2005 and since has merely been politics as normal, or if there are substantive issues at stake. If substantive, Romulo may express personal sentiments but they’re politically meaningless since he hasn’t given up preferment and position to show he is renouncing the choices he made since 2005. it all depends on one’s attitude towards the president, her methods and arguments for staying in power, the damage she has done to the country and its institutions, etc. more of the same logically leads to villar; more of the same but perhaps with a little more finesse leads to teodoro.
if the motive power of noynoy’s candidacy are good governance, integrity and honesty, then you immediately set the criterion that make everybody welcome, so long as they commit to these things, but it is harder to commit if you cannot relinquish identification with the very regime whose disrepute made the noynoy candidacy something of a historical inevitability.
“…the house only guarantees survival…” Need Gloria ask for more?
Yes Chris. At a time when candidates need to make a stand on certain issues, all they can mouth are motherhood statements. Ninoy, in particular, has to prove that he has metamorphosed into the kind of man Manolo has so painstakingly pictured him to be, from the cocoon that he has been during his whole stint in Congress and in the Senate. The clock started ticking days ago.
it also depends whether they are genuine issues that require being addressed at this particular time, or issues calculated to redound to the benefit of those that created them; there are artificial issues and genuine issues, issues presented as traps.
There can be no doubt that there were serious questions back in 2005 and now about reforming institutions. Questions around which Romulo as Hamlet (“to resign or not to resign”) and our support for one party or another hinges on whether you believe the group behind say Noynoy, the anti-GMA crowd, are any different.
Is the mantel of moral authority that they cloak themselves with simply illusory? A figment of fantasy? In the midst of our emotional high, we need to soberly consider this possibility. To pierce the veil and get to the heart of the matter: the institution of “booty capitalism” fostered by political elites has an unbroken history in our country. What makes us think it will be any different this time around?
Cusp, it depends on one thing: whether incremental reform is preferable to none at all, and even backsliding. The broader the constituency and the more it includes the non-traditional holders of power, the broader the constituency to apply pressure and sustain reforms. this is dangerous to those who’d prefer no reform at all if only to deepen the fissures in society, or those for whom things are nice as they are. a campaign that anchors itself on transparency (the lack of which has deepened public mistrust), accountability (the failure of which has been obvious and eroded public confidence in the rule of law), personal integrity and honesty (which sets the tone for officialdom) does not guarantee it will be all of these things but casts a positive vote for these things mattering and being demanded of government and officials.
what you’ve pointed out are the things that precisely make this kind of risk-taking attractive to some people and a good motivation for a campaign that reaches out to beyond the usual players in elections.
Even with the broadest base of support that I have seen in my lifetime, the anti-Marcos rainbow coalition, small set of “players” operating from within were able to undo the pledges made in the heat of the campaign because the energy of the larger “publics” are diffuse and disparate. Their voices recede after election day. The idealistic reformers are always the first of the children to be eaten by the Revolution.
We have seen cronyism morph into kamag-anak, inc into kumpadres into more of the same through the years. In the end, it boils down to whether we can trust Noynoy to do the right thing given the voice of his parents ringing in his ears. There must be something more concrete than just an appeal to hope, trust and decency that would signal that we have breached the divide that separates our disappointing past from our inspiring future.
like i said, at the heart of things are whether you will vote for cynicism or vote for optimism as the guiding principle of governance.
I guess that is where I might differ with you. I don’t see as big a contrast between the contending parties. I am a realist (neither pessimist nor optimist). I would rather vote not based on how I feel things ought to be (based on false dichotomies spun thru PR), but based on how they are (based on realistic assessments of what one candidate can and cannot accomplish given the people behind him and his proven abilities).
i don’t suppose there’s any incompatibility, though i’m operating from the assumption the platform will satisfy the skeptics as will the reality of the noy-mar campaign being a broader constituency than that represented by the others, and in stark contrast in some cases, but yes, like i also said, pragmatism is what kept the administration in power among other things, it will be what votes in favor of the status quo in 2010.
Don’t get me wrong, that person in the end might be Noynoy (for want of a better alternative), but I feel we are projecting too much of our own wishes onto him.
One can be cautiously optimistic.
Anyhow, except for Erap, there aren’t any potential bulls in the china shop among the candidates. Upon cursory examination, no potential Darth Vaders, either. It’s a pretty clean-cut set of aspirants. Whether any of them can take us to great heights is another matter.
My personal attitude about the candidates: “Trust, but verify”.
“Don’t get me wrong, that person in the end might be Noynoy (for want of a better alternative), but I feel we are projecting too much of our own wishes onto him.”-The Cusp
I agree. Good that there’s enough time left for them candidates to convonce us.
Pansamantala, tingnan muna nating mabuti ang kaliskis ng ating mga manok. Maganda ba ang kanyang mga palo, tama ba ang kanyang mga lipad, ayos na ba ang kanyang tapang para ilaban hanggang sa huling yugto ng kanyang hininga ang ating kapakanan, matalas ba ang kanyang tari?
Kung oo ang sagot, iyan ang aking manok.
I don’t think kamag-anak inc will apply to Noynoy just because her mom did it. Noynoy mentioned he’s only 1/20th owner of Luisita (I think the proportion is even smaller). A small piece of a crumbling sugar cake empire. He’s the only male among siblings. His sisters can rely on their breadwinner husbands and the hacineda. Kris has bajillions of moolah. The Aquino siblings, with the exception of Kris, grew up to be relatively simple kids in the context of Philippine political/business families. They didn’t become scions of industries like the Ayalas nor did become politically inclined like the Marcos kids.
It’s much more different from when Cory had his immediate brother Peping and cousin Danding to appease. In Cory’s situation, she was the widowed wife who had to navigate alone the political world still tied to notions of familial ties, old boys networks, and political dynasties. There was no one to seek counsel from but family, who unfortunately used and abused her.
Noynoy, being the younger pup, will prove his mantle to the alpha-male tigers Peping and Danding. Will the years playing second fiddle and mediocre boy to everything, from college years to Luisita to Tarlac politics, cause him to do the same on the national stage? Or will he take this opportunity to claw and gnaw the aging tigers and assert his role as alpha male?
Also, being the bachelor that he is, he’s not subject to nor has experience yet the pressures of pleasing a demanding bitch wife and parental instincts of giving the best material advantages to children. Maybe his girlfriend will not become ambitious and a bitch like other wives, who knows?
On the immediate family front (his own, which doesn’t exist, and his siblings), there is no issue. On Peping and Danding, I’m giving it 50/50.
It doesn’t help that he only has 14 million pesos net worth. It might incentivize him to steal more for when he becomes married and has to secure his family’s future. Or maybe it does help him. All I can say is, his character, all that he has shown, is that he’s not greedy and money hungry and has really imbibed simple living. I can recount tales of my aunts and cousins working in hacienda who describe Noynoy as just a simple guy who liked talking to sugar cane cutters, drivers, maids, and such. Will this give him the strength and will to stand up to the likes of Danding and Peping and the other blood-sucking vampires of Philippine political scene? What do you think?
That snippets of info of simple guy like Noynoy talking to sugar cane cutters, drivers, maids and such is helpful because you can count only a handful of politicians who had that experience because most politicians now grew up in the city, sent to the best schools and became elitist and detached from governed and majority in poverty. Which brings us to the point and contrasting the shadow candidate, how grounded to reality is the peculiar chicken, except pencil pushing the elitist and preserving the status quo?
There is that good nature in Ramon Magsaysay that people today can relate with Noynoy.
Cebu which is the bailiwick of Gloria Arroyo in 2004 election recently gave 51% preference rating to Noynoy over 22% to Villar and 14% to De Castro. The peculiar chicken is very well clobbered at ZERO. This has validated my thoughts on Gibo, Filipinos outside Manila has no idea who is Gilbert Teodoro Jr.
Local officials allied with the administration are fearing that the Palace might pull the plug on their pork barrel.
Davao, another Arroyo’s turf in Mindanao showed similar trending of Noynoy in top preference. Again, the administration peculiar chicken dressed down ZERO.
Administration is having difficulty to explain Cebu and Davao both Arroyos turf after dismissing Noynoy fever as merely Luzon phenomenon.
“dodong, except teodoro will have to relinquish the defense portfolio sometime between november 30, the filing of candidacy, and february, the start of the actual campaign.”
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Probably this may not happen. At the weekly forum Serye in Manila, Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco said members of the ruling coalition in the House of Representatives could drop Teodoro as standard-bearer if his survey ratings do not “IMPROVE DRASTICALLY†by Nov. 30
In Mindanao, governors are opposing the choice of GIBO instead pushing for Highway Sec Ebdane as standard bearer.
Gilbert Teodoro’s first salvo in national issue is a disaster. He resisted proposed negotiation of VFA to correct unfair provisions.
In his words ““Why should it be renegotiated?” and choose to highlight the financial aid over the unfair provision.
This is done despite Senate resolution authored by the Administration senators to renegotiate unfair provision or abrogate VFA.
Mas masahol pa si Gibo kay Arroyo. At least Arroyo pulled out Filipino troops from Iraq when she realized the national interest in the middle east. Gibo is willing to become banana to the Americans in case of a crime committed to Filipinos by a US soldier.
“…it also depends whether they are genuine issues that require being addressed at this particular time, or issues calculated to redound to the benefit of those that created them; there are artificial issues and genuine issues, issues presented as traps.” – mlq3
So until now Noynoy has not found any issue that requires being addressed? Or is he so afraid that he might fall into a trap? Whatever happened to risk taking as part of a dynamic leadership?
A no talk no mistake stance hardly invites a shift from cynicism to optimism. It’s been that way through all the years. If indeed he is capable of change he must show it now, not after we have cast our votes.
I am not looking for his father’s gift of the gab nor for an elaborate platform that any bright guy can come up with. I’d be happy enough if he’d open up somewhat and tell us something about his favorite cartoon character, his most unforgetable character or experience, his hobbies, and maybe a bit about why he’s still single. Hehehe.
The notion that one can deliver good governance by providing an example of honesty at the top is only partly correct. The government is a vast labyrinth of issues and interest groups. It takes knowledge, skill, political astuteness, temperament, discenrnment and good judgement to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
That is why issues of competence vs ineptness are not irrelevant in this election. One can be honest yet inept at curbing corruption and delivering on basic public goods and services. Or one can be accommodating to some special interests, but be very competent in streamlining govt functions and delivering on basic services (the example of Singapore and Malaysia come to mind).
Promising honesty and good governance these days is a lot like offering Communism, they are both unattainable. I would prefer that the candidates stipulate three major objectives that they intend to achieve in their first 18 months in office and how they intend to go about doing this. At least this would bring it down to something more concrete that we can evaluate.
“Promising honesty and good governance these days is a lot like offering Communism, they are both unattainable.”
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Yes, the Chinese and the Vietnamese have realized that.
And we should learn not to take motherhood statements and appealing soundbites at face value. I do hope that there will be opportunities in the months to come to examine the candidates more profoundly.
Noynoy certainly has the momentum. Were elections held today, he would win, hands down. That would be very gratifying to his die-hard supporters. But that would also entail caveats. The opportunists are locking in on the frontrunner. Yesterday, the news was that majority of Congressmen were actually for Noynoy. While it may delight Noynoy supporters, I take that as a red flag.
Don’t get me wrong, that person in the end might be Noynoy (for want of a better alternative), but I feel we are projecting too much of our own wishes onto him. – Cusp
Anyhow, except for Erap, there aren’t any potential bulls in the china shop among the candidates. Upon cursory examination, no potential Darth Vaders, either. It’s a pretty clean-cut set of aspirants. Whether any of them can take us to great heights is another matter. My personal attitude about the candidates: “Trust, but verifyâ€. – Carl
So until now Noynoy has not found any issue that requires being addressed? Or is he so afraid that he might fall into a trap? – taxj
I’m not sure if you guys have had the chance to examine the Liberal Party platform. There I find indices that the reconstituted party may be ready to rock the boat.
Hence, instead of “feeling we are projecting too much,†simply waiting to “verify†or somehow speculating about Noynoy’s fear “to fall into a trap,†haven’t we also thought that maybe we could be reading too little – of the LP party leadership or Noynoy in particular?
One should note for example the stated belief in the LP platform in “social market economy,†the economic system that pays obeisance to the market only nominally and this affirmation: “Market should be our servant and not our master.â€
The LP platform likewise provides clear intimation in terms of going the way of industrial democracy, a “dead horse†practically in American industrial relations nowadays.
Both Mar Roxas, the LP President, and Noynoy Aquino, the LP Executive VP until his announcement to be likewise the party’s standard bearer, have (presumably) signed on their party platform; it bears their approval.
Now, Nonoy’s acrid assessment of the malaise of our society is rather unreserved, almost uncouth: “matindi ang kabulukang bumabalot sa ating lipunan.†This painful frustration that Noynoy couldn’t hide is matched only by his passion for social justice as reflected in quality legislative measures he has initiated. One example is Senate Bill No. 1370 that would grant annual productivity incentive to workers in the private sector at 10% of the company’s net profits before taxes
In the explanatory notes for Senate Bill 2036 that Nonoy has also authored (the measure seeks to impose higher penalties for non-compliance of the prescribed adjustments in the wage rates of workers), he has called attention to the constitutional mandate to the State “to afford full protection to labor and (guarantee) that workers shall be entitled not only to security of tenure and humane conditions of work but also living wage and participation in policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights and benefits . . . .â€
The public policies like the above that Noynoy champions in the Senate are also spelled out in the LP platform such as the undertaking therein to:
“. . . ensure that every employee has a right to participate in decision-making in their enterprise†and “set up a program for Industrial Partnership to help companies and their employees find the precise form of partnership which best suit them.â€
“ . . . legislate to establish the right of every private sector employee in a substantial company to have access to a share in ownership and/ or in the profit they help to create†and “encourage profit-related pay, employee share-ownership schemes and employee buy-outs.â€
“. . . spread employee ownership and participation†in order to “encourage wages to be set according to the profitability of individual firms.â€
Given the profound political philosophy, goals and visions evident in the LP platform as well as in actual measures being pursue to implement them, aren’t we in fact seeing in Noynoy and Mar a tandem not merely promising honesty and good governance but of Weberian charismatic “bulls in the China shop†in the pursuit of a unifying ideology geared up to break away from traditional authority?
With all due respect, the LP platform, which I studied years ago, since believe it or not, I thought of becoming a member, is more of a statement of philosophy than of policy or program.
I don’t see for instance the manner by which the Noy-Mar tandem are going to institute reforms that will curb corruption other than through their example. Big scams like the ones involving fertislisers or the NBN attract media attention due to their connection to high public officials and their size, but how will Noy-Mar curb the myriad of mini-scams that proliferate everyday without so much as a blip on the media’s radar?
The productivity bonus bill that Noy filed actually exposes his lack of understanding the complexities and unintended consequences of mandating such an industrial relations policy on all types of businesses across sectors.
Mar in his previous pronouncements has been a tad bit the populist, opposing VAT on petroleum without stating how else to fix the fiscal crisis. In other words, no hard choices, have been made, only an expectation for a free lunch.