As we wind down the campaign and prepare for Monday, I'd like to take a step back and revisit my reasons for supporting Noynoy. I apologize in advance if this is long, but I figured, if I'm going to write one last hurrah, I may as well make it good.
To make my case, I will start each point with the negative, so-called "truths" about Noynoy, and then show you how/why these are false or irrelevant claims.
Strap up, boys and girls, this ride's about to get bumpy.
The first main charge against Noynoy is his "lackluster" performance in Congress and Senate, that he is an "underachiever" and a "do-nothing" guy. People point to the lack of any laws that Noynoy has authored for the past 12 years, and subsequently claim that he has not proven himself in government.
The problem with this argument is three-fold. First, it assumes that the creation and passage of laws is the only job of a legislator. While it is true that this is a primary function of a legislator, this is not the only role he plays. For example, through the office of a Congressman, the funds received from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (otherwise known as pork barrel) are allocated to projects for the congressional district. As congressman, Noynoy was able to put up at least 50 classrooms, 18 daycare centers, purchase 17 LGU patrol vehicles, put up 32.5 KM in farm-to-market roads, construct 7 barangay halls and one tribal hall, and provide P26.3M in financial assistance to the citizens of Tarlac. All these, among other things not explicitly itemized. Not bad for a "do-nothing guy."
The second problem with the argument is that it assumes that a legislator, having written a bill, has full control over whether or not it is passed into law. The fact is, any bill filed by a legislator passes through several readings before it is passed from the House to Senate or vice-versa, after which it goes through another set of readings In short: the moment a legislator submit a bill for review, he has little control over whether or not the bill even sees the light of day, let alone become a law.
The caveat, of course, is that the legislator can "play ball" and starting calling and giving out favors to get his legislation passed, in exchange of giving other bills the go-signal too - bills that may only be serving private interests rather than the interests of the public. Which makes me wonder, then, if the people who make this "non-achiever" case against Aquino understand that the patronage-politics system they want him to play a part of is the very system Aquino stands against.
Finally, the third problem with this argument is that, assuming its premise to be true, it is nevertheless patently false. Noynoy Aquino has passed several bills into law, either as part of a committee that filed the bill or as co-author. The reason why Noynoy does not take credit for these laws is simple: he was not the prime mover of those laws, and the credit rightfully belongs to someone else, like the law's principal author or to a committee.
So if you were led to believe that Noynoy Aquino has not accomplished anything in his years as a legislator, and thus doesn't deserve your vote, think again.
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The second main charge against Aquino is his seeming reliance on the legacy of his parents. His parents are, of course, Ninoy and Cory Aquino, prominent characters in our nation's history.
In one particular instance, people claim that Noynoy used his mother's death to catapult his political career. This assumes that Noynoy was even interested in pushing his political career far beyond his current position as Senator - an assumption that just doesn't carry any weight. There are absolutely no signs of him wanting to become anything more than a Senator prior to the passing of former President Cory, even in hindsight. There just isn't any truth to this.
Beyond simply using Cory's death as a springboard for his campaign, critics have said that Noynoy cannot aspire to the greatness of his parents. This is a telling, but nevertheless irrelevant point. No one can aspire to approximate Ninoy or Cory. This has never been Noynoy's message at all. His message has been that he will continue his parents' fight for a true democracy, on his own terms. What he brings to the table is not some false notion that he is exactly like his parents; rather, he brings with him the unique experience of witnessing his father's struggle to restore democracy first-hand, and in assisting his mother in rebuilding democracy after the Marcos regime. Noynoy knows what it was like to suffer and struggle under an oppressive regime, and he knows what it was like to take a bullet meant to take the life of another. No other candidate can lay claim to such a unique insight into our nation's democracy.
One critic speaks out and says that the Presidency cannot be inherited, it must be earned. That is true, more so for this coming Monday. But such a statement assumes that there is a prevailing notion that the presidency can be inherited by birthright - a ludicrous claim, and one that Noynoy has never espoused.
Noynoy entered into the Presidential race with the knowledge and appreciation of what his parents have accomplished and have attempted to do for the Philippine nation, and with a keen understanding of what he must do to continue their work. He knows that he owes much of who he is to his parents, but also understands that this next chapter in Philippine history is a chapter he must write on his own, if elected President.
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The third main charge is one of hypocrisy: that Noynoy Aquino cannot claim any sort of moral ascendancy nor promise reforms in government when his family is involved in the Hacienda Luisita Massacre.
My favorite response to this is: What *is* Noynoy's involvement in the Hacienda Luisita massacre?
Understanding the issues surrounding Hacienda Luisita requires us to look into its history and examine how it got to where it is today. So, join me in a trip down memory lane:
Hacienda Luisita was established into a corporation on August 23, 1988, in compliance with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Many people see this as an excuse for the Cojuangcos to keep ownership of the land, but in reality this option was preferred by the farmer beneficiaries for two reasons. First, it would allow the farmers to retain the sugar mill facility that stood in the middle of the property, as hacking the property into small parcels of land, the other option under CARP, meant dismantling the sugar mill and leaving them with no facilities to produce sugar. Second, most of the farmer beneficiaries who signed the incorporation still remembered the days when Don Pepe and Ninoy Aquino administered the farmers who worked there, and these farmers were hopeful that they would see times similar to those of Don Pepe and Ninoy.
It is of special note that the Department of Agrarian Reform canceled the stock distribution agreement, citing that it had failed to improve the lives of more than 5,000 farmer beneficiaries, in 2005 - just as Cory had withdrawn support from GMA due to the Hello Garci scandal. A brief examination of the fiscal history of the property will show that fiscal reforms were only introduced starting 1992, and whatever small gains made were neutralized by worker's strikes, initiated by a newly-formed union. It was one of these workers' strikes that eventually led to the Hacienda Luisita Massacre.
Speaking of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre, I would like to take this opportunity to address a specific issue with this incident: the involvement of Satur Ocampo and his gang.
Ocampo's recent video ad features clips from the Mendiola Massacre and HL Massacre, but in a prior ad, he claimed he was jailed for fighting for farmers' rights. Both claims are true, except they are largely unconnected. He was jailed for farmers rights advocacies mostly during the Marcos regime, 9 years, according to his official profile on www.bayanmuna.net. Also from this profile, during Cory's time in 1989, he was rearrested with his wife, but not for political activism. The couple was charged with and tried for the crimes of murder, kidnapping with serious illegal detention, and illegal possession of firearms in pursuance of rebellion - and not for any pro-farmers rights activist activities. He was freed in 1992, a year after his wife was released, without having been found guilty of any crime. It begs the question, then, of why he would actively recall Mendiola and Hacienda Luisita in his pro-farmers crusade, but not Martial Law, under which he suffered most fighting for farmers' rights. Your guess is as good as mine. Hint: It has something to do with another person on the Nacionalista Senatorial ticket. Name rhymes with "Galunggong."
While Satur and company was busy agitating the police and military to the point of sheer frustration, Noynoy was still trying to find ways to settle the dispute peacefully. While Satur and company pushed and pushed the situation to a hair-trigger tension, Noynoy was trying his best to negotiate with the farmer groups and seek a mutually beneficial resolution to the standoff. And while Satur and his gang continue to push for the unconditional ceding of the Luisita lands to the farmer beneficiaries, Noynoy has held out on such distribution to ensure that all of the financial obligations of the Hacienda are settled prior, ensureing that the farmer beneficiaries will not inherit any debt along with the lands. Who, then, is the true champion of the rights of farmers?
The fact remains that Noynoy had little to do with the incident that claimed farm workers' lives, but has had much to do with attempts to turn the situation around and help the farmer beneficiaries of the Hacienda Luisita get their feet back on the ground. To try to pin any sort of responsibility on Noynoy for the HL massacre is simply a red herring, designed to mislead you away from the truth of the situation in Hacienda Luisita.
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Quick aside. There is the nagging issue of Noynoy's mental health, but folks, are we really going to take three patently fake and even conflicting documents seriously? Are we really going to say, "Hey, there are three completely fake documents saying that there's something wrong with Noynoy, so there must be *some* truth in it?"
If I write out three different forged documents right now, claiming that I'm really a genetically-altered clone of Elvis in a Filipino disguise, would you really be thinking that there must be *some* truth in it, simply because those three documents exist?
I didn't think so either.
Moving along.
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Now that the three major issues have been examined and debunked, let's examine the other candidates. The objective: determine if Noynoy truly is the best choice among the candidates.
JC delos Reyes and Eddie Villanueva - two sides of the same conservative Catholic/Christian coin. Both claiming faith and righteousness in God as the path towards the success of the Philippines - nevermind that the Philippines has already been a largely Christian nation since the Spanish times starting from the 1600's, and remains to this day Asia's largest Christian nation. They are both question marks as far as capability in governance is concerned, Eddie Villanueva more so of the two. I do not doubt htat they mean well, but good intentions is not enough to lead a country.
Of particular interest to me is Villanueva's position as spiritual leader of his Jesus is Lord Movement. If elected, would he relinquish his leadership of his flock to someone else? If not, then how can he avoid conflict of interest?
Nick Perlas - I almost forgot about him, to be honest. Both of my parents have just about as much consulting experience as him, and my father was even executive director of a government agency at some point in his life - yet neither of my parents would ever dream that they deserve to be elected as President. How Nick PErlas thinks that he does, I can only guess. My main question would be, without any Senatorial slate nor vice-President for support, and without any true political clout, how does he expect to sway the legislative and the local governments towards his executive agenda?
Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro - The supposed "clean" candidate, self-proclaimed "candidate of the youth," with "galing at talino," and heir-apparent of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It is easy to overlook Gibo's allegiance to GMA, especially since we want to forget about her as soon as we can. That is precisely the danger in voting Gibo into office. A politician who is beholden to an authority other than the people who elect him into office is a politician who can never foster the fundamental changes needed for our government to function. Without the capability of seeking justice, without the capacity for independent thought and action, Gibo may as well be an empty sock, with buttons for eyes and a marker-drawn mouth, slipped over the hand of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Even if we were to assume that this is false, that Gibo is indeed capable of independent thought and action apart from his patron PGMA, he has already failed two major tests of his abililty to govern: the natural disaster known as Ondoy, and the unnatural disaster known as the Ampatuan Massacre. Both wreaked havoc on Filipino society and liberty under Gibo's watch as Secretary of the Department of National Defense. His strategy: rely on private initiatives to save stranded Filipinos and assist in the cleanup processes *after* the floods have subsided in the case of Ondoy, and booting out the Ampatuans from the Lakas party *after* they killed 57 people, including at least 34 journalists. Is this what we mean by "galing at talino:" the ability to perform mediocre damage control after the fact?.
Jamby Madrigal - A member of one of the few remaining "old rich" families in Metro Manila. Buoyed mostly by her sharp criticism of fellow Presidential candidate Manny Villar, the good Senator claims, through her political ads, that she will help remove the shackles of poverty from our poor compatriots. And yet, how can she do that, when she can't even properly resolve a simply land issue in Oroquieta, Manila? The squatted land alongside the ramp linking the LRT Lines 1 and 2 belong to her. Years prior, the squatters had tried to buy the land from her, but due to an unscrupulous local official, the sale was scuttled. Rather than try to resolve things peacefully and properly, she had a portion of the squatters evicted. Now they live alongside the Oroquieta road itself, just outside the property. Interestingly, squatters who were allies of that involved local official were spared, and continue to squat on the land today. Madam Jamby, methinks, needs to learn to settle this first before she can hope to settle the poverty question on a national scale.
Richard Gordon - "Dick" is a curious case of a "total package" candidate on paper (lawyer, experienced legislator, experienced executive), neatly bundled together with a ridiculously arrogant and often inconsistent, if not immature, attitude. On the one hand, in 2007 he stated, "I will try to mold a popular party coalition for national modernization and renewal from the many new parties that have emerged over the past decade," and even filed a bill seeking to penalize "politicval turncoats." Yet in 2009, not only did he bolt Lakas, he practically formed his own political party alongside Bayani Fernando - simply because his political rival was shown favor by PGMA. Gordon has been on record numerous times, calling for sobriety when people threaten mass action, but has lately been everything BUT sober in handling criticism thrown his way, even going out of his way to call web users on Twitter "do-nothing nobodys" and suiing SWS and Pulse Asia for releasing surveys that show that he's not exactly popular among the populace. He has repeatedly lambasted other candidates for using black propaganda at each other - while at the same time riding on that very black propaganda to further criticize his opponents. He will insist that he will see GMA brought to justice - and in the same breath praise her for her work ethic and her skills as a politician. His tirades against the media and against people in general leave me wondering if the question on mental health ought not to be leveled against him rather than against Noynoy. Patricia Evangelista said it best when she wrote, "It is odd for a man so contemptuous of people to claim he is a man who will represent them best."
Manny Villar - The self-made billionaire, looking to duplicate his success in his private endavors in the realm of governance. I've made many comments about Villar and the Nacionalista party in this blog, but to sum it up: 1) He has made false claims about his life story to appear as a viable candidate and a supposed "champion" for the poor; 2) His Senatorial ticket is composed of personalities and priorities that are conflicting by nature, forcing an artificial silence on otherwise relevant issues such as the recovery of Marcos wealth and justice for the victims of Martial Law abuses, among others; 3) He has numerous anomalies associated to him, such as the C-5 road extension scam, the land-grabbing of the Norzagaray farmers in Bulacan, and the arm-twisting of the PSE to release his company's stocks from being held for sale, among others.
Between a dishonest campaign, mixed signals in his choice of Senators, and a slew of shady deals, it seems evident that for all of Villar's good intentions with the Presidency, his type of transactional politics is not what we need for another 6 years.
Joseph "Erap" Estrada - The deposed former President, trying to make his comeback appearance. Quite apart from the obvious issues - such as the fact that he is an unrepentant convicted plunderer - there is the concern over his lack of palabra de honor. He accepted a pardon from GMA on the premise that he would no longer seek public office, and then - lo and behold! - not only does he seek reelection, but for President no less. It is an interesting tell on his character that he rejected an invitation to join forces with Noynoy Aquino, simply because Noynoy refused to accept Jinggoy as a senator in the Liberal Party slate, nor accept ally Jojo Binay's bid for the Vice-Presidency. It shows that, at the end of the day, Erap's old line of "walang kama-kamag-anak, walang kai-kaibigan" is just a sham, and that these people's interests are the first he will prioritize.
Game, set, match.
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I hope that by reading this, I have helped you come to a decision on who to vote for this coming Monday. Regardless of your position, I think you'll agree that at the end of the day, what we all want is a better future for the Philippines. Given what I've said above, is there any question on who can lead us there?
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