Maybe, we are the only country in the world where candidates who bear the record of not having accomplished anything, accused of corruption, and even ousted from power would still aspire to become President. One could not see in them a trace of reservation to their undaunted ambition for normally, persons hounded by charges often act with hesitation. Even if the charges are plain prevarications, their sense of equilibrium is somehow affected.
Indeed, we have inverted our sense of moral values. For candidates not to be accused of anything stands as a political liability. Any issue is what makes alive our political system that has degenerated into an ugly institutional fixture. A negative impression that could be attributed to a candidate is a good propaganda material. Some even relish the idea of being accused. Maybe they do not like what the people are talking about, but to be talked about is good enough that it would not even cost them a centavo.
In other countries, the issues raised against Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino of the Liberal Party (LP), Manuel “Manny” Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP), and against ousted President Joseph “Erap” Estrada of Pwersa ng Masa are serious to warrant their prompt disqualification. A strong moral pressure from an enlightened electorate is more than enough to adjudge them unfit for the job. They are proud of their political system because they have managed to maintain a high degree of moral qualification that people no longer choose who from among them has an unblemished record, but simply select those who are capable in steering their country to greatness.
What has evolved in our political system is a rambunctious democracy reflective on how we have miserably failed in electing leaders imbued with nationalism, commitment, and integrity. The social structures that make up our “civil society” have long been reduced to rubbles. We have a messy political system, a bankrupt economy, a mongrelized culture, and a highly hypocritical system of morality. Worse, while most of us cherish freedom and often equate it as the foundation of our democracy, in truth our right to vote has long lost its intrinsic value due to cheating and electoral fraud.
Politics of Bigotry and Revenge
Take the case of Noynoy Aquino. His is not only an elected public servant who accomplished nothing, but one who stands as a symbol of defiance amplified on how his family, as a ruthless cacique, sought to obliterate those farmers demanding to own a piece of land they tilled for generations. Doing nothing already constitutes neglect of duty, but allowing oneself to be used as a stooge by big business is the highest form of treason. People who bankrupted the government, induced Mrs. Arroyo to commit a political swindle, and now bankrolling his candidacy would undoubtedly not hoot for his candidacy for a mere song.
Right now, the elite are basking with arrogance their stooge will win. After all the requisites of what it takes to win is at their disposal. They have the resources, the support of the conservative but highly hypocritical Church, and in control of the media. So with our misguided political values blending well with our dysfunctional democracy, Noynoy simply epitomizes the brand of politics that capitalizes on bigotry with him presented as another of the yellow messiah. Even if he and his political handlers kept on telling everybody that their man will not steal, beyond their self-serving promise coupled by a threat of vengeance, it is evident that he does not know anything.
Although Noynoy appears to be most belligerent among the candidates, he failed to look back that the people who are so hysterical in wanting him to become President are the same people who earned the notorious distinction for corruption during the reign of her mother, and unfortunately the same pack who installed Mrs. Arroyo to power but ended up as the vilest scum in her government. However, their frenzy for the blood of Mrs. Arroyo is betrayed by their innate fear that a candidate not anointed by them might succeed to wrest power. This explains why Mrs. Arroyo has become the ideal person they could offer for sacrifice to divert the people’s attention away from their past opportunistic collaboration with the present dispensation.
Getting Away with Corruption
Manny Villar, even before he became congressman, already perfected the art on how to deal with all government financing institutions, and on how to make the most of it. Maybe the public can forgive him as a businessman, but when he decided to enter politics, which invariably made him a public servant, he failed to divest his interest from his various corporations. Instead of observing that ethical demarcation, Villar opted to maximize his influence to promote further his business empire.
From the time he was elected in 1992, as congressman from Las Piñas, it would seem that Villar concentrated in sponsoring bills intended to promote his business. After he and his group in the real estate business successfully lobbied to defang the National Housing Authority (NHA) in the construction of low-cost housing, they went on to corner the huge funds of the Pag-Ibig Housing Loan Fund. Some say while the Americans only became familiar with the subprime home mortgage crisis in 2008, the crisis on housing has been with us since 1998, and it was Sen. Joker Arroyo, now turned defender, who revealed how he almost bankrupted the Pag-Ibig Home Lending Program.
The modus operandi was simple, which is to turn over those completed residential houses to the Pag-Ibig Home Lending Program at discounted rate. From then on, the individual buyer would be paying his monthly amortization to Pag-Ibig with Villar’s real estate development companies already paid in full. Thus, during the 1997 financial crisis when many of the buyers, mostly overseas contract workers, lost their job, government collections of the monthly amortization began to falter that it ultimately has to bear the burden of the financial losses.
Just like Noynoy Aquino, Villar has not at all been deterred by any legal inhibitions on moral decency. He made a mockery of the landmark Pascual vs. Secretary of Public Works case, where the Supreme Court ruled that public officials are strictly prohibited from using public funds to indirectly improve private roads, even if that road has to be turned over to the government. In fact, the prohibition was far more stringent if public funds were used to improve and develop roads cut out from a subdivision owned by that public official.
Senator Villar lobbied hard to realign the construction of a highway to make sure it passes through his subdivisions. Evidently, because of the access road, the appraised market value of his real estate properties skyrocketed. The segmented portion of the C-5 project, known as the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway, is a classic craftsmanship of corruption because it earned for his company a windfall profit for the costly right-of-way like what the Aquino-Cojuangco family did when it overcharged SCETX and for the construction of an interchange directly leading to a private road.
The completed and signed report of the Senate Committee of the Whole already constitutes a prima facie evidence of graft and corruption against Villar. But somehow he managed to prevent the pronouncement of the verdict after he convinced some of his colleagues to boycott the remaining sessions. That is why he is able to swagger around with the thought that like before, he will again be able to get away with it.
The Lost Cause
Many truly believe former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada was not guilty of those charges leveled against him. In fact, they became so emotional in their defense of him. Alas, how could they continue in defending the man when it was he who willingly participated in that circus of being tried by a court everybody knows was without jurisdiction? The contemptuous walkout made by the private prosecutors after they failed to obtain the necessary vote to convict him should have served as warning he would never be able to get a fair shake, yet went through with it hoping that justice would ultimately prevail.
It was on that antecedent mockery of the impeachment procedure why many of his followers thought it was best not to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan because the Constitution requires that the President should first be convicted by the Senate acting as an impeachment court. As said, he went through with the circus despite clear indications that the court was bound to convict him as it was necessary to justify his ouster. It was a dilemma because to absolve him would create a far more serious problem on how to reinstate him.
Despite the unjust conviction, Estrada surprisingly opted to seek a pardon from the one who ousted him from power. Of course, that made him happy for aside from getting back his freedom, it gave him hope of being able to regain his lost glory. All the claims of Estrada that he was convicted to purposely prevent him from regaining the Presidency became moot because his acceptance of the pardon carried with it a much-deeper implication of raising doubt to his claim of innocence.
Perhaps, the believers of his innocence would give him the benefit of the doubt if he simply confined himself to participating in the trial, like presenting evidences and witnesses in his defense. After all, anybody who believes in his innocence can only look forward to seeing himself vindicated in court. But after he was convicted, the best option that Estrada could have done to preserve his remaining dignity was to accept the pain of incarceration, for somehow the conscience of the nation will haunt them for sending an innocent man – a President at that - to jail.
Rather, Estrada opted to play politics with his fate. He failed to realize that by accepting the pardon he could no longer raise the issue of having been tried in a kangaroo court. His participation validated all and whatever defects the court has in subjecting him to the indignities of being tried. Some believe that if only Estrada stonewalled in not submitting himself to the court’s jurisdiction, it could have been forced to take steps that could have invariably damage its image of impartiality. Mrs. Arroyo might have even been compelled to declare a revolutionary government, an agonizingly unpopular move, just to justify her ouster of the elected President.
Nonetheless, that dark chapter in our political history is now a closed case. The concluding saga became anticlimactic with the radiating aura of dignity melting down as the former President stood like an ordinary felon debased of whatever arguments he has to say about his innocence. His acceptance of the pardon constituted no less than a categorical admission of guilt. The impact had many wrenching in pain asking what the hell has happened to him. True, Estrada can validly claim he had the 30 percent support of the masses, but that remaining vestige of support he enjoyed evaporated fast after he accepted the pardon.
Concededly, the conspiracy that led to his ouster was beyond his control. But certainly, he has full control of the subsequent events that pertain to his free will of whether or not to accept the jurisdiction of the court. Similarly, while he could not prevent the court from trying him and even in sending him to the gallows, so to speak, still it cannot be said he was not completely in control of his fate. We say this because even if the world sees the accused as guilty, the condemned still has the choice of denying his accusers recognition of their verdict on him.
It is for this reason why, despite the leeway given him by the court for him to run again, his appeal to the masa has visibly waned such that in his campaign sorties they are no longer there to adulate him as their savior. He lost not by the pronouncement of his guilt, but by the technicality of his own indecisiveness. By his conduct, Erap sealed his fate to one of a lost cause.
Positive Value of Looking Forward
In contrast, the drawback attributed to Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate, Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr. is not of his own making. Maybe his being identified as the official candidate of Malacañang is the reason for his low rating. But if we are to ask, is that drawback one that should be answered by the electorate, and not to the candidate? In fact, to be objective of his status as candidate, Gibo stands as the official candidate of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, and not as a candidate of Malacañang. What makes the perception bad to some is the fact that he belongs to the party where Mrs. Arroyo happens to be a member and hailed today as the ruling political party.
In fact, if we are to detach Gibo from that party, practically there would be no issue against him. Unlike the three aspirants, they are all hounded by their own vices to rightly denominate them as traditional politicians. He is far from being accused as a vengeful bigot, a self-righteous hypocrite, a business predator, a crook, an opportunist or a man wallowing in his vice. All that he holds is an unblemished distinction of integrity, honor, competence, and the desire to serve our people.
Even if Teodoro has not been able to escape public scrutiny which is expected of any candidate running for public office, the criticisms against Teodoro are not about corruption and incompetence to raise doubts on his ability to govern. If the people are now blaming Mrs. Arroyo for corruption, mismanagement and electoral fraud, it would be unfair to impute that to Teodoro as though he too has been infected with the disease by virtue of his political affiliation. Neither, has he directly and actively collaborated with her in the commission of those shenanigans. It is on this logical correlation of things why the youth and the students expressed their solid support for him because the fight against corruption is not just a matter of raising it as a political platform, but would require a candidate to look at himself if indeed he is qualified to talk about corruption as an issue.
Compared to Aquino, Estrada, Gordon, Villanueva, Villar, etc., Teodoro represents the opposite that if one would borrow the lingo of accountants, he has all the assets and none of the liabilities. He is a bar topnocher, a former congressman from Tarlac who served well his constituents and live up to is role as a lawmaker, a former secretary of defense who sought to raise the morale of our soldiers while instilling in them the value of human rights, and a son of a dedicated public servant who earned the trust of his chief executive.
Teodoro can also be firm and independent-minded, and he showed that when he came out with a statement contrary to the position of Malacañang. He cautioned Mrs. Arroyo, as a matter of delicadeza, not to appoint the next chief justice by leaving that instead to the next President. Another, he openly suggested that in the event Mrs. Arroyo is elected congresswoman, she should submit herself to party consensus.
Finally, Teodoro has made clear his stand to give the late President Marcos a hero’s burial. He knows that it is one issue the hypocrites insist has deeply divided the nation. Again, his explanation was most logical - that Marcos gallantly fought for this country and earned medals for his heroism. For the fact that he was not convicted of any crime, Gibo sees no impediment why he should be denied of that honor. Having served this country as President, he equally deserves the honor of a funeral for a head of state because his ouster did not erase the fact that he became President of this Republic, notwithstanding that he accomplished more for our country than any other Presidents.
On the fate of Mrs. Arroyo, when Teodoro said he “will leave the matter to the court to decide”, that statement should have allied the anxiety of those rabidly anti-administration candidates that he ran for President not to act as the guarantor of Mrs. Arroyo’s immunity. Maybe his answer did not satisfy those who lust for Mrs. Arroyo’s blood but that is the way how a civil society works.
Gibo refuses to allow himself to be preoccupied with the past. He is consistent that only by looking forward can we ever accomplish our goal. The task of nation-building is complicated, and it begins on how we could convince our people that good governance is a cooperative venture between them and their leader. Such is most positive because the vision on how to run the affairs of the state is an enterprise that ought to be participated by people amalgamated by one common cause.
Thus, when Gibo said it is time for us to take off, it was not an ordinary political statement on how to exhume our people from poverty. Rather, it was a statement exuding with confidence interpreted by many as a challenge to industrialize. The testament of success all points to that formula on how our economy could metamorphose from its present state of backwardness so for us to overcome the institutional problems like unemployment, poverty, hunger, disease, and ignorance. Teodoro wants us to evolve beyond the parochial system of politics characterized by revenge, patronage and exclusivity of power. He believes our people can escape from the chain of institutional ignorance if we will dare to move on and leave behind politics in favor of hard work. 03/16/10
Indeed, we have inverted our sense of moral values. For candidates not to be accused of anything stands as a political liability. Any issue is what makes alive our political system that has degenerated into an ugly institutional fixture. A negative impression that could be attributed to a candidate is a good propaganda material. Some even relish the idea of being accused. Maybe they do not like what the people are talking about, but to be talked about is good enough that it would not even cost them a centavo.
In other countries, the issues raised against Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino of the Liberal Party (LP), Manuel “Manny” Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP), and against ousted President Joseph “Erap” Estrada of Pwersa ng Masa are serious to warrant their prompt disqualification. A strong moral pressure from an enlightened electorate is more than enough to adjudge them unfit for the job. They are proud of their political system because they have managed to maintain a high degree of moral qualification that people no longer choose who from among them has an unblemished record, but simply select those who are capable in steering their country to greatness.
What has evolved in our political system is a rambunctious democracy reflective on how we have miserably failed in electing leaders imbued with nationalism, commitment, and integrity. The social structures that make up our “civil society” have long been reduced to rubbles. We have a messy political system, a bankrupt economy, a mongrelized culture, and a highly hypocritical system of morality. Worse, while most of us cherish freedom and often equate it as the foundation of our democracy, in truth our right to vote has long lost its intrinsic value due to cheating and electoral fraud.
Politics of Bigotry and Revenge
Take the case of Noynoy Aquino. His is not only an elected public servant who accomplished nothing, but one who stands as a symbol of defiance amplified on how his family, as a ruthless cacique, sought to obliterate those farmers demanding to own a piece of land they tilled for generations. Doing nothing already constitutes neglect of duty, but allowing oneself to be used as a stooge by big business is the highest form of treason. People who bankrupted the government, induced Mrs. Arroyo to commit a political swindle, and now bankrolling his candidacy would undoubtedly not hoot for his candidacy for a mere song.
Right now, the elite are basking with arrogance their stooge will win. After all the requisites of what it takes to win is at their disposal. They have the resources, the support of the conservative but highly hypocritical Church, and in control of the media. So with our misguided political values blending well with our dysfunctional democracy, Noynoy simply epitomizes the brand of politics that capitalizes on bigotry with him presented as another of the yellow messiah. Even if he and his political handlers kept on telling everybody that their man will not steal, beyond their self-serving promise coupled by a threat of vengeance, it is evident that he does not know anything.
Although Noynoy appears to be most belligerent among the candidates, he failed to look back that the people who are so hysterical in wanting him to become President are the same people who earned the notorious distinction for corruption during the reign of her mother, and unfortunately the same pack who installed Mrs. Arroyo to power but ended up as the vilest scum in her government. However, their frenzy for the blood of Mrs. Arroyo is betrayed by their innate fear that a candidate not anointed by them might succeed to wrest power. This explains why Mrs. Arroyo has become the ideal person they could offer for sacrifice to divert the people’s attention away from their past opportunistic collaboration with the present dispensation.
Getting Away with Corruption
Manny Villar, even before he became congressman, already perfected the art on how to deal with all government financing institutions, and on how to make the most of it. Maybe the public can forgive him as a businessman, but when he decided to enter politics, which invariably made him a public servant, he failed to divest his interest from his various corporations. Instead of observing that ethical demarcation, Villar opted to maximize his influence to promote further his business empire.
From the time he was elected in 1992, as congressman from Las Piñas, it would seem that Villar concentrated in sponsoring bills intended to promote his business. After he and his group in the real estate business successfully lobbied to defang the National Housing Authority (NHA) in the construction of low-cost housing, they went on to corner the huge funds of the Pag-Ibig Housing Loan Fund. Some say while the Americans only became familiar with the subprime home mortgage crisis in 2008, the crisis on housing has been with us since 1998, and it was Sen. Joker Arroyo, now turned defender, who revealed how he almost bankrupted the Pag-Ibig Home Lending Program.
The modus operandi was simple, which is to turn over those completed residential houses to the Pag-Ibig Home Lending Program at discounted rate. From then on, the individual buyer would be paying his monthly amortization to Pag-Ibig with Villar’s real estate development companies already paid in full. Thus, during the 1997 financial crisis when many of the buyers, mostly overseas contract workers, lost their job, government collections of the monthly amortization began to falter that it ultimately has to bear the burden of the financial losses.
Just like Noynoy Aquino, Villar has not at all been deterred by any legal inhibitions on moral decency. He made a mockery of the landmark Pascual vs. Secretary of Public Works case, where the Supreme Court ruled that public officials are strictly prohibited from using public funds to indirectly improve private roads, even if that road has to be turned over to the government. In fact, the prohibition was far more stringent if public funds were used to improve and develop roads cut out from a subdivision owned by that public official.
Senator Villar lobbied hard to realign the construction of a highway to make sure it passes through his subdivisions. Evidently, because of the access road, the appraised market value of his real estate properties skyrocketed. The segmented portion of the C-5 project, known as the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway, is a classic craftsmanship of corruption because it earned for his company a windfall profit for the costly right-of-way like what the Aquino-Cojuangco family did when it overcharged SCETX and for the construction of an interchange directly leading to a private road.
The completed and signed report of the Senate Committee of the Whole already constitutes a prima facie evidence of graft and corruption against Villar. But somehow he managed to prevent the pronouncement of the verdict after he convinced some of his colleagues to boycott the remaining sessions. That is why he is able to swagger around with the thought that like before, he will again be able to get away with it.
The Lost Cause
Many truly believe former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada was not guilty of those charges leveled against him. In fact, they became so emotional in their defense of him. Alas, how could they continue in defending the man when it was he who willingly participated in that circus of being tried by a court everybody knows was without jurisdiction? The contemptuous walkout made by the private prosecutors after they failed to obtain the necessary vote to convict him should have served as warning he would never be able to get a fair shake, yet went through with it hoping that justice would ultimately prevail.
It was on that antecedent mockery of the impeachment procedure why many of his followers thought it was best not to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan because the Constitution requires that the President should first be convicted by the Senate acting as an impeachment court. As said, he went through with the circus despite clear indications that the court was bound to convict him as it was necessary to justify his ouster. It was a dilemma because to absolve him would create a far more serious problem on how to reinstate him.
Despite the unjust conviction, Estrada surprisingly opted to seek a pardon from the one who ousted him from power. Of course, that made him happy for aside from getting back his freedom, it gave him hope of being able to regain his lost glory. All the claims of Estrada that he was convicted to purposely prevent him from regaining the Presidency became moot because his acceptance of the pardon carried with it a much-deeper implication of raising doubt to his claim of innocence.
Perhaps, the believers of his innocence would give him the benefit of the doubt if he simply confined himself to participating in the trial, like presenting evidences and witnesses in his defense. After all, anybody who believes in his innocence can only look forward to seeing himself vindicated in court. But after he was convicted, the best option that Estrada could have done to preserve his remaining dignity was to accept the pain of incarceration, for somehow the conscience of the nation will haunt them for sending an innocent man – a President at that - to jail.
Rather, Estrada opted to play politics with his fate. He failed to realize that by accepting the pardon he could no longer raise the issue of having been tried in a kangaroo court. His participation validated all and whatever defects the court has in subjecting him to the indignities of being tried. Some believe that if only Estrada stonewalled in not submitting himself to the court’s jurisdiction, it could have been forced to take steps that could have invariably damage its image of impartiality. Mrs. Arroyo might have even been compelled to declare a revolutionary government, an agonizingly unpopular move, just to justify her ouster of the elected President.
Nonetheless, that dark chapter in our political history is now a closed case. The concluding saga became anticlimactic with the radiating aura of dignity melting down as the former President stood like an ordinary felon debased of whatever arguments he has to say about his innocence. His acceptance of the pardon constituted no less than a categorical admission of guilt. The impact had many wrenching in pain asking what the hell has happened to him. True, Estrada can validly claim he had the 30 percent support of the masses, but that remaining vestige of support he enjoyed evaporated fast after he accepted the pardon.
Concededly, the conspiracy that led to his ouster was beyond his control. But certainly, he has full control of the subsequent events that pertain to his free will of whether or not to accept the jurisdiction of the court. Similarly, while he could not prevent the court from trying him and even in sending him to the gallows, so to speak, still it cannot be said he was not completely in control of his fate. We say this because even if the world sees the accused as guilty, the condemned still has the choice of denying his accusers recognition of their verdict on him.
It is for this reason why, despite the leeway given him by the court for him to run again, his appeal to the masa has visibly waned such that in his campaign sorties they are no longer there to adulate him as their savior. He lost not by the pronouncement of his guilt, but by the technicality of his own indecisiveness. By his conduct, Erap sealed his fate to one of a lost cause.
Positive Value of Looking Forward
In contrast, the drawback attributed to Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate, Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr. is not of his own making. Maybe his being identified as the official candidate of Malacañang is the reason for his low rating. But if we are to ask, is that drawback one that should be answered by the electorate, and not to the candidate? In fact, to be objective of his status as candidate, Gibo stands as the official candidate of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, and not as a candidate of Malacañang. What makes the perception bad to some is the fact that he belongs to the party where Mrs. Arroyo happens to be a member and hailed today as the ruling political party.
In fact, if we are to detach Gibo from that party, practically there would be no issue against him. Unlike the three aspirants, they are all hounded by their own vices to rightly denominate them as traditional politicians. He is far from being accused as a vengeful bigot, a self-righteous hypocrite, a business predator, a crook, an opportunist or a man wallowing in his vice. All that he holds is an unblemished distinction of integrity, honor, competence, and the desire to serve our people.
Even if Teodoro has not been able to escape public scrutiny which is expected of any candidate running for public office, the criticisms against Teodoro are not about corruption and incompetence to raise doubts on his ability to govern. If the people are now blaming Mrs. Arroyo for corruption, mismanagement and electoral fraud, it would be unfair to impute that to Teodoro as though he too has been infected with the disease by virtue of his political affiliation. Neither, has he directly and actively collaborated with her in the commission of those shenanigans. It is on this logical correlation of things why the youth and the students expressed their solid support for him because the fight against corruption is not just a matter of raising it as a political platform, but would require a candidate to look at himself if indeed he is qualified to talk about corruption as an issue.
Compared to Aquino, Estrada, Gordon, Villanueva, Villar, etc., Teodoro represents the opposite that if one would borrow the lingo of accountants, he has all the assets and none of the liabilities. He is a bar topnocher, a former congressman from Tarlac who served well his constituents and live up to is role as a lawmaker, a former secretary of defense who sought to raise the morale of our soldiers while instilling in them the value of human rights, and a son of a dedicated public servant who earned the trust of his chief executive.
Teodoro can also be firm and independent-minded, and he showed that when he came out with a statement contrary to the position of Malacañang. He cautioned Mrs. Arroyo, as a matter of delicadeza, not to appoint the next chief justice by leaving that instead to the next President. Another, he openly suggested that in the event Mrs. Arroyo is elected congresswoman, she should submit herself to party consensus.
Finally, Teodoro has made clear his stand to give the late President Marcos a hero’s burial. He knows that it is one issue the hypocrites insist has deeply divided the nation. Again, his explanation was most logical - that Marcos gallantly fought for this country and earned medals for his heroism. For the fact that he was not convicted of any crime, Gibo sees no impediment why he should be denied of that honor. Having served this country as President, he equally deserves the honor of a funeral for a head of state because his ouster did not erase the fact that he became President of this Republic, notwithstanding that he accomplished more for our country than any other Presidents.
On the fate of Mrs. Arroyo, when Teodoro said he “will leave the matter to the court to decide”, that statement should have allied the anxiety of those rabidly anti-administration candidates that he ran for President not to act as the guarantor of Mrs. Arroyo’s immunity. Maybe his answer did not satisfy those who lust for Mrs. Arroyo’s blood but that is the way how a civil society works.
Gibo refuses to allow himself to be preoccupied with the past. He is consistent that only by looking forward can we ever accomplish our goal. The task of nation-building is complicated, and it begins on how we could convince our people that good governance is a cooperative venture between them and their leader. Such is most positive because the vision on how to run the affairs of the state is an enterprise that ought to be participated by people amalgamated by one common cause.
Thus, when Gibo said it is time for us to take off, it was not an ordinary political statement on how to exhume our people from poverty. Rather, it was a statement exuding with confidence interpreted by many as a challenge to industrialize. The testament of success all points to that formula on how our economy could metamorphose from its present state of backwardness so for us to overcome the institutional problems like unemployment, poverty, hunger, disease, and ignorance. Teodoro wants us to evolve beyond the parochial system of politics characterized by revenge, patronage and exclusivity of power. He believes our people can escape from the chain of institutional ignorance if we will dare to move on and leave behind politics in favor of hard work. 03/16/10
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