Thursday, June 17, 2010

Yes, he might

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

Several people have asked me in recent weeks: “Do you think Noynoy Aquino can really stop corruption?”

That question has for its context the performance of Noynoy’s own mother, Cory, in that respect. Cory came in under far more euphoric, far more heroic, far more revolutionary conditions, conditions that promised to turn things around in thoroughgoing, if not radical, ways. Instead corruption flourished under her rule, the expropriated government corporations in particular being appropriated faster than you could say GOCC by friends and relatives. Can Noynoy do better?

My answer is: “I am hopeful he can.”

There are a number of things to bolster that hope, though in a qualified way. One, as I kept saying during the campaign, he is not beholden to the usual suspects who invest in elections and demand payback afterward. His campaign was a real people’s campaign for the most part, soaring on the wings of volunteer work, or worked off the backs of people who did what they did simply because they believed in it. But who have gone on not just without pay but without recognition, the credit for their work being stolen by those who got paid handsomely, who bungled the campaign (they dropped Edsa as the campaign theme, sending Noynoy into a tailspin; the volunteers kept faith with it), and who believe now they deserve to be punished by being given the choicest positions in government.

But to appreciate the value of Noynoy’s “people’s campaign,” can you imagine if Manny Villar were elected president? At the very least, there’s the question of how he would recoup the fortune he spent for it. At the very most, there’s the question of how much a presidential candidate would have to spend in 2016 to top it.

Two, on several occasions Noynoy has expressed his resolve to prosecute those who stole, and stole not just money. He has objected to the clearing of the First Couple in the NBN scandal and has told the European Union he means to bring the killers of hundreds of political activists to justice. As early signals go, these aren’t bad.

His campaign slogan was, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” That cannot simply mean replacing the corrupt with the honest and forgetting about the corrupt. That can only mean replacing the corrupt with the honest and jailing the corrupt. If only to give added incentive to the honest not to become corrupt themselves. People do tend to become the ogre they slay. Enough of that “Let’s be positive” nonsense if all that means is that we should let the thieves and murderers get away to enjoy the fruits of their crimes. The only way you can stop corruption is to punish corruption, and that means not just future thieves but past ones. You do not punish past thieves, you will always have future ones.

That is, of course, easier said than done, and Noynoy will need all the support he can gather, apart from all the fortitude he can muster, to accomplish it. Indeed, his real test of character will not be hounding Arroyo and company to the ends of the earth like the Furies for blood debts among other debts, it will be hounding some of the people who were part of his campaign for a flood of debts among other debts. The Peace Bonds, for one, remain an open wound, a sovereign debt we will be paying, with all the interests that have accrued to them (P35 billion next year). That is not to speak of the people in that campaign who have been stealing credit for the work of others, which is a worse sort of theft. You steal credit today, you’ll steal cash tomorrow. If indeed you haven’t done so already.

Keep your enemies far and your friends even farther. That is the advice I gave prospective journalists in the form of the UP MassCom graduates a couple of months ago. Same advice I’d give a prospective president.

And three, Noynoy, like his mother, has the power to tap into People Power. That is the one huge ally he would need to fight corruption. That is the one huge ally that will be there to fight corruption.

Cory formally institutionalized People Power—it’s a provision in the Constitution—but never really used it in the course of her term. The provision was left for the politicians to pervert, not least Arroyo who used it to oust Grace Padaca and Ed Panlilio and to try to change the Constitution. Noynoy holds the key to it. If he discovers it, he will raise, like Aragorn who conscripted the dead kings and their legions in “Lord of the Rings,” an army mightier than any of his enemies can muster.

I’ve never really bought that stupid idea that Noynoy should compromise with the deadbeats in the Senate and House so that he can get the numbers to push reform. The last thing you’ll get when you ally with the people who are opposed to reform is reform. The only thing he needs to do is ally with the people, or get them behind his back. The only thing he needs to do is unlock the magic that is to be found in the constitutional provision about the people and their power.

People Power though is a tricky thing. It is not like the power Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Santiago tapped into when they goaded the crowd at the Edsa Shrine to “Sugod! Sugod!” and wreaked that mayhem in Mendiola. People Power is far more discriminating, it is far more purposeful. It doesn’t follow blindly. Cory herself was unable to raise it when she called for the retention of the US bases, and Jaime Cardinal Sin himself was unable to raise it as well when he called for a siege on Castle Condom, or the reproductive health program of Juan Flavier. But Noynoy summons it to fight corruption, and the summons will reach the farthest reaches of the forests to draw out an army, one ready for a long and arduous campaign.

Can Noynoy do it? Can he stop corruption as he promised to do?

Paraphrasing Barack Obama, yes, he might.

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