So where is Noynoy Aquino's platform of government? I have heard some people ask that question in the past few days. Surely, they say, you cannot run this country without having at least a vision of how to set things even before you could win the presidency. Surely, they say, you cannot build anything out of nothing, and so it must be that you ought to have a plan on which you will eventually shape the course of the government. You have none, you have no right to become president, or at least a candidate for the highest position in the land. It is a serious office, they say, and to run towards that direction without knowing what you want to do is as dreadful as any offense against the sensibilities of the public, if not more. Where is Noynoy's "blueprint" for redeeming this country from its plight of madness?
To begin with, to pose that question is to assume at this point in time that Noynoy is already bidding himself to be the next president. Of course, he has not yet revealed his intentions, which is exactly why there is no reason, at least for the time being, to expect from the man what typical presidential candidates so often deliver before the public, a platform of government being chief of them. Here you have someone who is yet to clear his mind from the clouds of confusion egging him from all directions in all possible shapes and sizes. Here you have someone who is yet to know what to do with the growing sentiment being latched onto his hands. Here you have someone who seems to have developed an allergy to the frightening malady of readily embracing political opportunities at the very first sight of them. In short, here you have Noynoy hesitant to claim the urgings of those around and beyond him and to seize them as his own.
And we have the audacity to expect him to already have a platform of government as the next chief executive of the land? That's like putting the cart ahead of the horse. Or expecting wine to rain from the heavens in the middle of the Gobi. I do not know for certain if it has already rained wine right smack in any desert, or if people have already replaced their carts with horses and their horses with carts, but what I do know for certain is that there is a season for everything. There is a time for everything. While patience may not be among the golden virtues some of us have, it truly boggles the mind why some of us can hardly follow pure and basic common sense. But this is certainly not the most troubling defect I have encountered thus far.
Oddly enough, there are also those who question his performance as a legislator, claiming that all his years as a senator bear proof of his poor record. What has he done, people ask, if there are any? What merits can he lay down the table so that he may summon all good reasons for people to rally behind him and the cause which they now pin on his shoulders? What did he do, or what has he done, when the nation was turning on its back, or bending on its knees, at the height of the insatiable appetite of the Palace for everything it sees as ripe for the taking?
I must agree. Little has been said and done on the part of Noynoy. But let us not forget, too, that he has just been Senator for two years and some of us are asking too much. We complain that little has been done but cannot see that we are demanding for mountains to grow out of a molehill in such a short span of time. If six years are not enough for a president to radically alter the social conditions for good, can two years be any better? He has done several things but we are hardly ever pleased, which is not surprising. Some others are deaf enough to hear only those who speak loudly but none the wiser. Some others are blind enough to see only those that stare them in the face but forget about everything else in the distance. We only see what we want to see. We only hear what we want to hear. As for the rest, we forget about them, or bury them in the recesses of human memory, or forgetfulness. We only remember those who, in a finger's snap, make things appear or disappear, happen or otherwise. Like magic. Or as if it is not enough, we might be asking for someone like the Christian god, able to create the world in six days. Noynoy did so few, but he did so in so little a time. We can only begin to imagine what he could have done in the long, or longer, run, which leads us back to square one.
Which is that he still cannot make up his mind precisely because he knows much is yet to be done, and that the tasks he might be facing are too heavy to take. He fears that he may only add to the gravity of the problems coiling around us, and that he may only frustrate our expectations. How sensible, how prudent, and how pure can any one get than that? This is not a man who is so willing to advance his own interests while sacrificing the good of the people. He stands in stark and direct contrast to the pile of aspirants who salivate at the very thought of becoming president but could only wring their hands dry. He stands directly opposite to those who declare their candidacy at the first dawn of day, expecting civil society's support to naturally follow like sunrise is to sunset. He is the antonym of those who put their faces on streamers and billboards along highways at the expense of public coffers, like the pink ones littering the stretch of EDSA and the provinces. To say the least, you cannot blame Noynoy for having to contemplate first on such a monumental task as the presidency.
But should he decide to run, where shall he get the funds to bankroll his candidacy? Or more precisely, as Senator Jamby Madrigal claims, you need at least 3 billion pesos to do just that. Where will Noynoy get all that? This question is entirely interesting, more so with Noynoy's response. The question goes hand-in-hand with his answer. Taking no moment to mull things over, his answer came in a flash during a press conference, the one where Mar announced his support for Noynoy. He said, "that is if you run a traditional campaign". In other words, you need roughly 3 billion pesos if you intend to run a traditional campaign. From the looks of it, should Noynoy decide to run, he won't be depending on a large paycheck to buy his way into office. This, for good reasons.
One, he will be depending largely on the support of the people, volunteers being the majority. That way, should he win, he owes his allegiance not to those who made certain that his campaign's bank accounts never ran dry but to those who made sure that no lying, stealing and cheating can rob them off of their voices in the elections. That way, should he win, the only interests he will have to deal with are not those accruing from bank loans but those of the Filipinos. Should he lose, not all is lost. At least for once in our lives, we will be able to realize that standing your ground while holding firm to your conviction is no worse than doing nothing at all. You do nothing and you would be better off as a thing; an inanimate object; an "it".
And two, the people will be depending largely on his support for them. This reinforces the first, or the first reinforces this. People depending on him is patent enough from the start. It is the same and sane reason why they are prodding him to heed their call, if not the call of his conscience. They want him there for them inasmuch as he wants them there for him. Otherwise, the long and agonizing battle waiting ahead will yield to results they least presume. While elections have been the source of timeless jokes for many times in a very long time, the very thought of joining the list of candidates is no joke in itself. It's a matter laughed at only by those who, by virtue of how they walk and talk, are clowns in both body and mind. Why so serious? Well, for one thing, when you have people clamoring for someone to seize the chance of becoming president and someone clamoring for the people to seize the chance to manifest their desires, you cannot get any more serious as a nation than that.
Truly, it takes a traditional mind to conjure traditional methods of making things happen, no matter how perverted or sick. Tradition may be well and good, but not all of them are worth replicating. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to the classic ways of approaching politics, to the point that we find it bizarre when we encounter someone being pushed to the very heights of politics and yet that someone still refuses to ride the upsurge. Like Noynoy.
Today is just one of those days when you simply just want to supply the answers even if the questions are yet to grow a muscle.
To begin with, to pose that question is to assume at this point in time that Noynoy is already bidding himself to be the next president. Of course, he has not yet revealed his intentions, which is exactly why there is no reason, at least for the time being, to expect from the man what typical presidential candidates so often deliver before the public, a platform of government being chief of them. Here you have someone who is yet to clear his mind from the clouds of confusion egging him from all directions in all possible shapes and sizes. Here you have someone who is yet to know what to do with the growing sentiment being latched onto his hands. Here you have someone who seems to have developed an allergy to the frightening malady of readily embracing political opportunities at the very first sight of them. In short, here you have Noynoy hesitant to claim the urgings of those around and beyond him and to seize them as his own.
And we have the audacity to expect him to already have a platform of government as the next chief executive of the land? That's like putting the cart ahead of the horse. Or expecting wine to rain from the heavens in the middle of the Gobi. I do not know for certain if it has already rained wine right smack in any desert, or if people have already replaced their carts with horses and their horses with carts, but what I do know for certain is that there is a season for everything. There is a time for everything. While patience may not be among the golden virtues some of us have, it truly boggles the mind why some of us can hardly follow pure and basic common sense. But this is certainly not the most troubling defect I have encountered thus far.
Oddly enough, there are also those who question his performance as a legislator, claiming that all his years as a senator bear proof of his poor record. What has he done, people ask, if there are any? What merits can he lay down the table so that he may summon all good reasons for people to rally behind him and the cause which they now pin on his shoulders? What did he do, or what has he done, when the nation was turning on its back, or bending on its knees, at the height of the insatiable appetite of the Palace for everything it sees as ripe for the taking?
I must agree. Little has been said and done on the part of Noynoy. But let us not forget, too, that he has just been Senator for two years and some of us are asking too much. We complain that little has been done but cannot see that we are demanding for mountains to grow out of a molehill in such a short span of time. If six years are not enough for a president to radically alter the social conditions for good, can two years be any better? He has done several things but we are hardly ever pleased, which is not surprising. Some others are deaf enough to hear only those who speak loudly but none the wiser. Some others are blind enough to see only those that stare them in the face but forget about everything else in the distance. We only see what we want to see. We only hear what we want to hear. As for the rest, we forget about them, or bury them in the recesses of human memory, or forgetfulness. We only remember those who, in a finger's snap, make things appear or disappear, happen or otherwise. Like magic. Or as if it is not enough, we might be asking for someone like the Christian god, able to create the world in six days. Noynoy did so few, but he did so in so little a time. We can only begin to imagine what he could have done in the long, or longer, run, which leads us back to square one.
Which is that he still cannot make up his mind precisely because he knows much is yet to be done, and that the tasks he might be facing are too heavy to take. He fears that he may only add to the gravity of the problems coiling around us, and that he may only frustrate our expectations. How sensible, how prudent, and how pure can any one get than that? This is not a man who is so willing to advance his own interests while sacrificing the good of the people. He stands in stark and direct contrast to the pile of aspirants who salivate at the very thought of becoming president but could only wring their hands dry. He stands directly opposite to those who declare their candidacy at the first dawn of day, expecting civil society's support to naturally follow like sunrise is to sunset. He is the antonym of those who put their faces on streamers and billboards along highways at the expense of public coffers, like the pink ones littering the stretch of EDSA and the provinces. To say the least, you cannot blame Noynoy for having to contemplate first on such a monumental task as the presidency.
But should he decide to run, where shall he get the funds to bankroll his candidacy? Or more precisely, as Senator Jamby Madrigal claims, you need at least 3 billion pesos to do just that. Where will Noynoy get all that? This question is entirely interesting, more so with Noynoy's response. The question goes hand-in-hand with his answer. Taking no moment to mull things over, his answer came in a flash during a press conference, the one where Mar announced his support for Noynoy. He said, "that is if you run a traditional campaign". In other words, you need roughly 3 billion pesos if you intend to run a traditional campaign. From the looks of it, should Noynoy decide to run, he won't be depending on a large paycheck to buy his way into office. This, for good reasons.
One, he will be depending largely on the support of the people, volunteers being the majority. That way, should he win, he owes his allegiance not to those who made certain that his campaign's bank accounts never ran dry but to those who made sure that no lying, stealing and cheating can rob them off of their voices in the elections. That way, should he win, the only interests he will have to deal with are not those accruing from bank loans but those of the Filipinos. Should he lose, not all is lost. At least for once in our lives, we will be able to realize that standing your ground while holding firm to your conviction is no worse than doing nothing at all. You do nothing and you would be better off as a thing; an inanimate object; an "it".
And two, the people will be depending largely on his support for them. This reinforces the first, or the first reinforces this. People depending on him is patent enough from the start. It is the same and sane reason why they are prodding him to heed their call, if not the call of his conscience. They want him there for them inasmuch as he wants them there for him. Otherwise, the long and agonizing battle waiting ahead will yield to results they least presume. While elections have been the source of timeless jokes for many times in a very long time, the very thought of joining the list of candidates is no joke in itself. It's a matter laughed at only by those who, by virtue of how they walk and talk, are clowns in both body and mind. Why so serious? Well, for one thing, when you have people clamoring for someone to seize the chance of becoming president and someone clamoring for the people to seize the chance to manifest their desires, you cannot get any more serious as a nation than that.
Truly, it takes a traditional mind to conjure traditional methods of making things happen, no matter how perverted or sick. Tradition may be well and good, but not all of them are worth replicating. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to the classic ways of approaching politics, to the point that we find it bizarre when we encounter someone being pushed to the very heights of politics and yet that someone still refuses to ride the upsurge. Like Noynoy.
Today is just one of those days when you simply just want to supply the answers even if the questions are yet to grow a muscle.
|