By Jayson Edward B. San Juan
Friends from various sides of the political fence will often ask me who will be my presidential bet for May 10. My standard answer is, “I’m still discerning.” To be followed by a standard retort, “Anybody but Noynoy.”
Sure, Senator Aquino might be a nice guy. Never mind his lack of solid track record and competence. I might even be convinced of his ‘virtue’ of being a ‘straight-arrow’. But for me, being forced into a situation then playing along with it leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. And while his campaign team continues to play up his initially unwillingness to assume power, this just shows how dangerous an Aquino administration will be in case Senator Aquino wins in May 10.
I remember a dialogue from the television series Commander-in-chief, where US House Speaker Nathan Templeton (played by Donald Sutherland) berates US Vice President Mackenzie Spencer Allen (played by Geena Davis) in contemplating to take the Oath of Office when US President Teddy Roosevelt Bridges (played by William Lyman) suddenly died. In that scene –
TEMPLETON: In this room, where it’s just you and me, just the two of us, the answer that you should be giving me is that you want to be President because you want the power. You want the power to control the universe.
ALLEN: That’s not me.
TEMPLETON: Well, that’s the problem! That’s what I’m telling you. People who don’t want power have no idea what to do with it. They have no idea how to use it when they have it.
People who don’t know how to use power are enslaved by it. And those enslaved by power are the ones who are more prone to dictatorial tendencies. One must then master power and tame it. And one can only tame power if it is clear at the onset why he is seeking it in the first place.
People believe that it is virtuous to refuse power. They say that President Cory Aquino initially refused the Presidency when it was first offered to her, belatedly taking the mantle of leadership when Jaime Cardinal Sin presented her with a million-signature petition.
In 1986, she was installed as President via People Power. But good governance took a big hit. She concentrated in dismantling everything reminiscent of the Marcos administration, but remained hostage within the contending factions of her administration. At the end of her term, rotating blackouts were a norm because there was no serious energy planning (she abolished the Ministry of Energy and mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant without any contingency plan); her infamous promise in the US Congress to ‘honor all debts’ continues to plague the Philippine fiscal system; her refusal to enact a genuine agrarian reform program resulted in 20 years of declining agricultural productivity and agrarian unrest, resulting in the death of 13 protesters and injuring others in the foot of Mendiola Bridge.
President Cory Aquino has all the power from 1986 to 1987 – she was ruling under a revolutionary government with full dictatorial powers. But because she did not know how to use that power, she let the opportunities slip away. She did not know how to use this power, but instead allowed her squabbling officials to eat her up and advance their own interests.
And now comes her son, trumpeting the same ‘virtue’, surrounded by ‘squabbling’ factions all jockeying up for spoils.
God help us if Senator Aquino wins in May 10.
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2010 Elections, Agrarian Reform, Cory Aquino
Why not Cory and, by extension, Noynoy?
In Perspectives and Commentaries on January 25, 2010 at 2:22 pmBy Jayson Edward B. San Juan
Friends from various sides of the political fence will often ask me who will be my presidential bet for May 10. My standard answer is, “I’m still discerning.” To be followed by a standard retort, “Anybody but Noynoy.”
Sure, Senator Aquino might be a nice guy. Never mind his lack of solid track record and competence. I might even be convinced of his ‘virtue’ of being a ‘straight-arrow’. But for me, being forced into a situation then playing along with it leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. And while his campaign team continues to play up his initially unwillingness to assume power, this just shows how dangerous an Aquino administration will be in case Senator Aquino wins in May 10.
I remember a dialogue from the television series Commander-in-chief, where US House Speaker Nathan Templeton (played by Donald Sutherland) berates US Vice President Mackenzie Spencer Allen (played by Geena Davis) in contemplating to take the Oath of Office when US President Teddy Roosevelt Bridges (played by William Lyman) suddenly died. In that scene –
TEMPLETON: In this room, where it’s just you and me, just the two of us, the answer that you should be giving me is that you want to be President because you want the power. You want the power to control the universe.
ALLEN: That’s not me.
TEMPLETON: Well, that’s the problem! That’s what I’m telling you. People who don’t want power have no idea what to do with it. They have no idea how to use it when they have it.
People who don’t know how to use power are enslaved by it. And those enslaved by power are the ones who are more prone to dictatorial tendencies. One must then master power and tame it. And one can only tame power if it is clear at the onset why he is seeking it in the first place.
People believe that it is virtuous to refuse power. They say that President Cory Aquino initially refused the Presidency when it was first offered to her, belatedly taking the mantle of leadership when Jaime Cardinal Sin presented her with a million-signature petition.
In 1986, she was installed as President via People Power. But good governance took a big hit. She concentrated in dismantling everything reminiscent of the Marcos administration, but remained hostage within the contending factions of her administration. At the end of her term, rotating blackouts were a norm because there was no serious energy planning (she abolished the Ministry of Energy and mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant without any contingency plan); her infamous promise in the US Congress to ‘honor all debts’ continues to plague the Philippine fiscal system; her refusal to enact a genuine agrarian reform program resulted in 20 years of declining agricultural productivity and agrarian unrest, resulting in the death of 13 protesters and injuring others in the foot of Mendiola Bridge.
President Cory Aquino has all the power from 1986 to 1987 – she was ruling under a revolutionary government with full dictatorial powers. But because she did not know how to use that power, she let the opportunities slip away. She did not know how to use this power, but instead allowed her squabbling officials to eat her up and advance their own interests.
And now comes her son, trumpeting the same ‘virtue’, surrounded by ‘squabbling’ factions all jockeying up for spoils.
God help us if Senator Aquino wins in May 10.
Like this: