What Better Choices?

By Antonio C. Abaya
Written on Jan. 28, 2009

There is an item going around in the domestic cyberspace with the provocative assertion that we deserve better choices in presidential candidates in 2010. In fact, readers are encouraged to submit their nominations to the email address:

<we.deserve.better.choices.2010@gmail.com>
The short message goes as follows:
“Why should we settle with Noli de Castro (refutedly [sic] attack collect/defend collect and a GMA stooge)?
“Why should we believe Manny Villar (behind Capitol Bank failure/double titling/titling of watersheds/C-5 insertions etc etc)?
“Why should we accept Loren (wife of a convicted murderer/will do anything to get elected/no proven executive experience)?
“Why believe in fast talking Chiz Escudero (Danding Cojuangco and Lucio Tan boy)?
“Should we limit our choices to these questionable characters?
“WE DESERVE BETTER CHOICES IN 2010
“PLEASE PASS so we can have a better Philippines !!!!! Let’s look for the right choices. Email us who you think should lead us beyond 2010.
“God Save the Philippines!”

I have no idea who is or who are behind this campaign. I sent them an email asking for the results of this survey, so that they can be discussed in this space. The unsigned reply promised to do so, “around the end of this month..”

It could be that those floating this survey are supporting one of the other presidential wannabes who are not mentioned in its hate list: Mar Roxas, Panfilo Lacson, Joseph Estrada, Richard Gordon, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Jejomar Binay, Bayani Fernando, or the latest Flavor of the Month, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno. Or it could be a support group for our President-for-Life/Would-be Prime Minister Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as part of the Kampi efforts to emphasize that no one, but no one, can replace the Irreplaceable One

It is a common lament among the middle-class that there is no one among the presidential contenders whom they would trust to do a better job than Gloria has done. Most of the would-be presidents have been in the public eye for decades, and suffer from that over-exposure. Rightly or wrongly, people tend to think that since they have not done anything significant in the years and decades that they have been public officials, there is no reason to believe that they will do anything significant if and when they occupy higher positions.

Many concerned Filipinos, whether they will admit it or not, are really looking for fresh new faces with fresh new ideas of governance. This survey on what better choices we can have for 2010 is a manifestation of this frantic search for new leaders. But it is not the only one.

Two or three years ago, Jaro Archbishop Amado Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a call for “a new breed of leaders”. Our Thursday group met with him and eight other bishops at the Pius XII Center on United Nations Ave. to find out what methodologies the bishops had in mind for looking for and finding “a new breed of leaders.”

The bishops had no such methodology. We suggested that the Church use its Radio Veritas and its network of Catholic schools to provide a platform from which this “new breed of leaders” can be seen and heard, but the suggestion was received coldly and unenthusiastically by the bishops.

In fact, when Jun Lozada emerged as a new folk hero, in the wake of the ZTE scandal, and was treated like a rock star by thousands of young people in the school campuses that he visited, it was the bishops who poured cold water on the incipient prairie fire by forbidding Catholic schools from further inviting Lozada to their campuses.

So how the hell can “a new breed of leaders” get an airing in this country where the meaningless and personalistic party system – captive as it is by a cannibalistic political culture - is monopolized by feudal political dynasts, and media is interested largely only in trapos, coup plotters and Communists?

The Kaya Natin movement being nurtured by Harvey Keh in the Ateneo de Manila University is focused on credible local executives such as Naga City Mayor Jess Robredo, Isabela Governor Grace Padaca and Pampanga Governor Fr. Ed Among Panlilio, whom Kaya Natin wants to support for the Senate.

The Ang Kapatiran party founded by Nandy Pacheco has initiated a nationwide search for municipal councilors to add to the solitary party member whom they have managed to get elected: a municipal councilor in Olongapo City.

These efforts are both commendable and worthy of support. But the Need of the Hour is for a visionary president who will lead a social, moral and cultural revolution, not necessarily a violent one, to transform this country and release the long dormant and wasted creative potential of the Filipinos. In other words, we really need and deserve better choices in 2010. Any volunteers? Any suggestions? *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com.