These developments are unprecedented. I thought this was confined only to my facebook friends. But I now read many respected non-political writers such as the following are suddenly speaking out. It seems the silent majority has begun to come out of the woodwork, finally telling the world who they are voting for. Many of them declare their full and unequivocal support for Mar Roxas for president and Leni Robredo for vice-president. I hope it’s not too late: the silent majority only has barely 20 days left.
Paulynn Sicam of Philstar declares:
I have never done this before. I have never directly endorsed candidates in my column. But the times are different. The stakes are high; the possibility of the wrong persons getting the top jobs in government is abhorrent.
I like Mar and Leni’s quiet strength and dignity. No bells and whistles. No drum roll. They speak the truth and you just know they will get things done. They are hard-working, reliable, can-do and will-do people. And they have the track record to prove it. They will bring our country and people forward with our national integrity and dignity intact.
Every president he has served knew that they could count on Mar Roxas to deliver. Didn’t Erap, who had a distinguished roster of technocrats and academics in his Cabinet, say that Mar was his best Cabinet member? And President Aquino gave him the toughest jobs: among others, on the scene in Tacloban when Yolanda struck, and in other disaster-hit places; on the scene in Masbate for the painful search for the remains of Jesse Robredo and his companions after the plane he was riding crashed; and the security and physical arrangements during the historic visit of Pope Francis last year.
Mar is a generous soul. He gave up his plan to run for president in favor of Noynoy Aquino whom the public practically anointed when his mother Cory died. He agreed to run as Aquino’s vice president, but was blind-sided by disloyal party mates who supported Jojo Binay. But Mar is a good soldier. He plodded on, serving his president and his people willingly, diligently, purposefully.
Politicians who knew that Mar was the heir-apparent began their demolition job on him early on. Nothing he did went un-noticed. He was vilified, maligned, his efforts belittled. But he remained focused on the job, rolling with the punches, trying to keep his famous temper under control.
You have to admire the man for his focus and fidelity under pressure. This is why I know I can count on Mar to be consistent, diligent, and fair. Good, honest hard work is what I can expect from Mar Roxas as president.
Having served several presidents up close and personal, Mar has a clear plan on how, given the chance, he would run the country. As head of some of the most important agencies of government, and with his distinguished career as senator, he has the broadest experience among all the candidates. In his talk before the business community two weeks ago, he showed a good grasp of the problems bugging the country and came up with impressive solutions. In fact, he was so thorough in his presentation, the panel of interrogators had only a few more questions to ask him.
Given the chance to lead, I know Mar will surprise us all. He has served his presidents well, taking on any and all challenges thrown his way. But there is more to him than an obedient and reliable worker. He has a mind of his own and great ideas about governance. I am particularly grateful to Mar for the millions of jobs created by call centers, the expanded benefits I enjoy as a senior citizen, the increased access of the Filipino youth to education, and the financial support given to entrepreneurs starting small and medium businesses. And I consider his efforts in Tacloban after Yolanda to be no less than heroic.
To my mind, among his best accomplishments is convincing the amazing Leni Robredo to be his running mate. As I knew she would, she outclassed all the macho vice-presidential hopefuls at last Sunday’s debate with her firm knowledge of issues, the courage of her convictions, and her cutting repartee that she delivered with dignity and grace.
What a great team Mar and Leni would make at the helm of the government! What excellent examples they are to the Filipino youth. What upstanding representatives they would be of our country and people to the world.
Some people like their leaders brash, aggressive, forceful, larger than life. They like the swagger of the tough guy, the glib talker, the neighborhood-bully with a dirty mouth. I like my leaders thoughtful, steady, constant, reliable, decent and dignified. And she and he must have wisdom and an inner strength that comes from a strong spiritual core. In a field dominated by caricatures of macho comic book superheroes, I am rooting for the quiet strength and hidden powers of a Clark Kent, the serious, under-rated, but totally dependable intellectual who turns out to be Superman.
As for Leni Robredo, she has no equal, in comic books or in real life — the best person for the job. May the best woman win.
Election Role for Seniors by Chit Roces-Santos of PDI:
In six years, I reckon I’ll be in no condition to get involved in any election campaign again. In fact I promised myself in 2010 that I’d stay off politics after Noynoy won.
But just when I thought our campaigning days were over, the nation, just one month before the elections, has been plunged into a state of emergency, as my husband diagnosed the situation. What else do you call a situation where a Duterte and (not or!) a Marcos lead for the top positions of the land?
No matter how late in the game, there’s no way serious old fogeys like us could just sit this one out.
Masterful presentation
One day a group of like-minded and like-hearted fogeys came together, and quite serendipitously a daang-matuwid idea was hatched that involved a semiretired journalist with 50 years’ experience. He was enlisted for a sort of town hall in our own barangay to speak on the stakes in the elections.
After a brief but masterful presentation of the story of our democracy by a kagawad, a teacher of history by profession, our journalist came on and began to challenge and provoke his audience of 200 or so homeowners, kasambahay and other household staff in our own and a few neighboring barangay. A lively exchange ensued, one marked by a boldness and openness rarely observed in such a mixed-class audience.
A request came for a second forum for the same communities. That’s where we met a philanthropist couple, no strangers to us, really, who themselves began arranging similar forums elsewhere. Word flew fast, and campuses and civic clubs were themselves booking. Meanwhile, my journalist and I had to set aside our own regular senior concerns.
Due appreciation
I cannot quite understand why Noynoy does not get due appreciation for his strong economic and moral performance, as validated by reliable polls and ratings. And his anointed, Mar and Leni, don’t get their due numbers. It’s a strange disconnect.
To sort out such things, my journalist tells his audiences that straight does not mean perfect: “Ang daang matuwid ay hindi daang perpekto. Walang daang perpekto.”
Indeed, he adds, in societies like ours, in which the distribution of resources and opportunities has been too lopsided, it would take great and sustained effort to strike enough measure of social equity. But understandably, owing to their tremendous privations, the poor might have expected far more of Noynoy.
Still he has made no small accomplishments. Growth, personal income and investor interest have not been higher and steadier.
And do we want wangwang back? Do we want the big crooks freed and the inquiries into anomalies kept secret?
I’m reminded of Noynoy’s mother’s own anointed, Fidel Ramos, who won by a mere plurality but proved himself a hard-working, high-achieving president. He, too, had good ratings, but the nation chose yet to gamble away the fruits of his good government and handed the presidency by a landslide vote to Joseph Estrada, an indolent, fun-loving character who would end up being convicted of plunder. He was followed by the similarly scandal-ridden, nine-year regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
It’s almost pathological how we seem to prefer change by radical and reckless measures to a more prudent and more consistent, if slower, pursuit of a good thing. This is why Duterte, who started out as a joke, leads. How, in all conscience, could we remain on the sidelines, even if probably excusable due to age, at a time like this?
Useful counsel
Well, we’ve found a way, as we all must if we can, to contribute to society with philanthropy not only in material terms but also in whatever useful counsel we can dispense. Whether it helps the election or not, surely it cannot be for nothing.
For our own sakes, this possibly absolutely last campaign for us has given us a unique opportunity to be in touch with our less fortunate fellows and to learn that we have a common hope and common dream: a better future for our children and grandchildren. Until our visits to their community, I could only imagine how terrible it must be to be so poor.
Relating her own experience, my dear friend Dr. Chit Reodica, Ramos’ health secretary, who goes around the countryside with her philanthropy, has told me: “After I met the many poor people in the countryside, I could no longer forget their faces. I don’t think I can ever stop trying to do what little I can to help alleviate their plight. They have changed the way I live.”
I have only begun to understand what she means. Until our visits to Leveriza and Pandacan, the poor had no faces and names. I now see them, hear them, and I have realized even more that elections are critical to them.
Moral Challenge by Vergel O. Santos:
The specter grows with every affirming poll, yet we remain unprovoked, unmoved. But then, again, it’s very much in our character.
Ferdinand Marcos knew us only too well. His martial law could not have come unexpected. Enunciating the exact dreaded phrase, he himself had announced that he would not hesitate to impose “martial law … if it would redound to the upholding of our democratic institutions.”
Grown smug in our unrestrained exercise of freedom, we were not impressed. Thus, we got our dictator. And now we have got his son counting on the same default in our character that allowed his dictator dad to run roughshod over us for 14 years.
If we think EDSA has done enough for us, we are in for a rude awakening from our generational sleep. That million-strong street vigil, which booted the Marcoses out of power 30 years ago, has proved fluky. After a mere six years of exile, they were back unrepentant, in fact plucky and unpunished, in fact welcomed. Orphaned by Ferdinand but fortified by untold loot and circled by paid or fanatical and considerable following, they have had no problem regrouping and re-entrenching themselves.
Chilling prospect
In fact Ferdinand Jr. has come to within grasp of picking up where his father left off; he leads the race for vice president, a position that puts its occupant “a mere breath away,” as they say, from supreme executive power, which in his case raises a particularly chilling prospect: The front-runner for president, Rodrigo Duterte, although not a partymate, is a man of decidedly Marcosian bent.
Duterte is running on a one-dimensional platform: He would rid the society of crime in no more than six months—an obvious pyramid scam, if you ask me, but a platform apparently widely resonant even so. Crime is, to him, not merely a symptom of a complex condition, but the disease itself.
But what do you expect? The man is rather slow, by his own admission, thus averse to strenuous mental work; he prefers extralegal, death-squad shortcuts. Marcos was definitely quicker, his shortcuts shorter but subtler.
Anyway, if anyone yet doubts Duterte to be a worthy Marcosian, he vows to pay Marcos the ultimate tribute by burying him a hero. Two of his rivals, Jejomar Binay and Grace Poe, have made the same vow, but neither possesses the consistency of character to be a credible Marcos heir or disciple. As for Mar Roxas, he is simply too decent to even be considered for that league.
If the trend holds, it’s history repeating with a vengeance; it’s not only Duterte we’re getting, but an authentic Marcos, too. But are we really so irremediably doubly doomed?
In fact I somehow find something inspiring about it all, a long shot maybe, but a chance at self-redemption, a chance to come clean of any residual Marcos taint, a sort of second EDSA, where the nation once again rallies around a figure of widowed virtue.
Conscience choice
Leni Robredo happens to be the only candidate for vice president uncontaminated by Marcos.
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