With the elections just months away, the front-runners for the presidential race are determined in the surveys. And unsuprisingly, Ninoy Aquino’s only son, Noynoy Aquino, ranks first among other bets.
Ever since his mother, the late Corazon Aquino, passed away last August the masses have called on Noynoy to become president. Proclaiming an all-new people power. They called for a new resistance against corruption and injustice to our country. That’s the kind of attitude that our country needs at the moment, the question is why only after Ninoy’s widow had died? The call against injustice was long overdue, it already missed “Hello, Garci” and the “ZTE-NBN Broadband Scandal”. And another question is, why Noynoy? Is it because he’s the son of the greatest president our country never had? Is it because his mom just died? These are two very shallow reasons why Noynoy would be the “saviour” our nation so badly needs. Sure, supporters might argue and say that the guy has the genes of the best diplomat our country has ever seen. True. But they also can’t argue that he has the genes of the worst president our country has ever had.
And even if it was Noynoy’s own track record to be reflected on, he still won’t meet the criteria of an ideal president. Although he served under various committees in his time at Congress, even becoming deputy speaker in 2004, Aquino never made any significant legislation to contribute to our country’s development. His most notable work in Congress is the bill that requires all procurement of oil and petroleum lubricants of the military to be done by public bidding. Something that has even made mobilization of our military more difficult.
Elections are in four months, and that’s four months the Filipino has to decide who will be able to resolve our country’s problems best. The people have that much time to ponder if whether Noynoy can actually live up to their expectations. They have to bear in mind how similar the situation is to that of Joseph Estrada, when everyone thought the ‘robinhood’ he played in his films was actually who he was. In the end, it was actually he, himself who stole from the poor. The Filipino should learn to choose not from what a person shows but from what that person does. “Walk not talk”, as the saying goes.
The people needs to rid of this mentality, this very wrong mentality. We have the opportunity to end a decade of chaotic politics and return to progress, slipping up could mean another six years of controversies, corruption and war. Whether the man who can change all these is Noynoy or not, what’s important is that we voted for the person who is most capable among all the other candidates. Most capable of making a change our country badly needs.
LOUIE ENCABO.com 