Nearly eight years ago I asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, “I’m sure a lot of women are dying to ask you this question.”
“And since you are not a widow, they would like to ask you this question. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but a lot of women are dying to know – do you still have sex?”
The 55-year-old mother of three replied “Plenty” – and gave a toothy smile.
Last January 22, when she hosted a a surprise dinner for 23 officers and members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) I asked her a milder personal question about her hair. Now I’m not so sure if her reluctant reply pertained to my question eight years ago or two Fridays ago.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and FOCAP
During the hour-long dinner, Mrs Arroyo was at her gracious best but she was not all that candid. I must say, it took all of our reportorial skills to get her to talk about her former college student and now leading presidential contender Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. She refused to talk about her party’s presidential standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro or about her feelings towards the Ampatuans – her long-time allies now accused of murdering 57 people including 30 journalists.
The ease with which she talked to reporters vanished in 2005 when wiretapped tapes of her, suggesting she was trying to rig her 2004 poll victory by a million votes, leaked out.
During her dinner some of that ease returned as she talked about the presidential palace, her girlhood and her Palace chef. Only to vanish when she refused to answer many questions she deemed “political” or which asked about her “feelings”.
Still, the occasion gave me a momentary glimpse of the power and the pomp of the presidency, its lonely isolation, and the woman who was determined to hold on to it for as long as she could.
I did not get any hint she was ready to clear out her desk by June 30 when her term ends.
At short notice. An invitation to dine with her, even at several hours’ notice, was highly unusual and one I seized at a moment’s notice. She had not seen FOCAP since 2007. A press conference in 2008 was abruptly canceled after we were told she would only talk about the economy and would not entertain political questions.
I was curious why the President wanted to meet us on the same day she waved goodbye to the remains of her press secretary, Cerge Remonde.
Her terms for engaging the foreign press quickly became evident. At the entrance to the presidential palace, the guards impounded all tape recorders and cameras on orders of the palace media relations office. It was a first for many of the journalists, including me, who have covered Palace events in three previous presidencies.
The media handlers later explained that no tape recorders and cameras were allowed because it was a strictly social event. A Palace photographer would snap photos. The confiscation disoriented me somewhat because we were informed earlier that while there was no formal Q and A, the President “may answer questions”.
Didn’t she want to be quoted correctly? And it would have been bad manners for us to scribble throughout the meal.
It turned out alright in the end, because someone else, who asked to remain unnamed, enabled me to put together almost the entire dinner conversation. Besides, Mrs Arroyo never told us it was off the record.
I wasn’t going to write about poll automation just yet. I thought what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told the foreign press corps last Friday, January 22 was old hat, until I saw the presidential palace story on the dinner:
PGMA assures foreign media there will be no failure of election
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last night assured foreign correspondents there will be no failure of elections in May.
In a dinner she hosted for the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at the Palace, the President said she was assured by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that it is doing its best to complete the automated poll system before May. She said all the funds necessary for holding the national elections have been disbursed.
That’s funny. I did not come away from the Palace dinner feeling reassured that the automation was going great guns.
Oliver Teves of Associated Press shakes hands with President Arroyo while I (in brown coat) look on; left foreground is FOCAP president Jim Gomez; behind Jim is Dana Batnag of Jiji Press; on right background is Zhao Jiemin of Xinhua News Agency - PHOTO courtesy of Malacanang Palace press office
In fact I felt more apprehensive because of what Mrs Arroyo told us.
When I asked her – “Maam, are you personally worried” – about the automation?
Her reply did not give comfort. First she said, “Um”, and she looked up at the ceiling. Then she said, more like talking to herself, “I’m worried. I’m worried, but I – I have to go by what the Comelec said.”
Dear readers, tell me if I’m being paranoid by reading more than what the President really told us.
Help me out here by reading for yourself what President Arroyo (GMA) said – word for word – on poll automation during our dinner . I would like to thank a colleague in FOCAP for providing me with the specific quotes reprinted below:
FOCAP MEMBER: THERE ARE CONCERNS ABOUT THE AUTOMATION PROCESS.
GMA: Ya, thats why I called a national security council meeting. Because we needed to ask Comelec.
FOCAP MEMBER: ARE WE STILL ON SCHEDULE?
GMA:Ya, that’s what the Comelec said.
FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT ASPECT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT, OF AUTOMATION?
GMA: Well, it’s not been tested. So we expressed the concern that everybody —
FOCAP MEMBER (ME): MAAM, ARE YOU PERSONALLY WORRIED?
GMA: Um – I’m worried. I’m worried, but I – I have to go by what the Comelec said.
FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT IF IT FAILS?
GMA: They said it might fail in some – some areas. But it cannot, but not nationally.
FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT ABOUT THE AUTOMATION ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?THE COUNTING,THE–
GMA: I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s just that –
FOCAP MEMBER (ME): YOU’RE UNEASY
GMA: I don’t know. Like all of you. Like all of you. It’s more –
FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT STEPS ARE YOU DOING TO AVOID A FAILURE OF ELECTIONS?
GMA: We have to support the Comelec in everything they want to do. It’s their primary responsiblity but we’re suporting them. That’s why we called a National Security Council meeting. To ask them what they would need. We’ve made the budget tthat they need available.
FOCAP MEMBER: LET’S KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED.
GMA: They said they’re not entertaining a failure of elections
FOCAP MEMBER: NANDON BA ANG (IS THERE A )BACKUP PLAN IF EVER?
GMA: You know I can’t be their spokesman. You have to ask them. But then they made a presentation. What about failure of elections. They said there may be some but only in isolated areas, but not nationwide.
FOCAP MEMBER: SO WHAT DID THEY SAY IN SOME ISOLATED AREAS
GMA: Same as now. It happens. So they have their mechanism. But it doesnt affect the national anymore.
FOCAP MEMBER: THEY ASSURED YOU IT WON’T BE MASSIVE FAILURE
GMA: That’s what they said. They’re not entertaining national failure of elections, maybe in some isolated areas but not nationwide.
FOCAP MEMBER: DID THEY MENTION TO YOU ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PARALLEL MANUAL COUNT?
GMA: They did not say.
FOCAP MEMBER (DANA BATNAG OF JIJI PRESS: – YOU SAID COMELEC IS NOT ENTERTAINING THE POSSIBILITY. DOES THAT MEAN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT PREPARING FOR THE POSSIBLITY OF A FAILURE OF ELECTIONS? OR ARE THERE PREPARATIONS?
GMA: As far as we are concerend, we would rather prepare to help Comelec succeed.
FOCAP MEMBER: IN CASE IT HAPPENS
GMA: You know, they said it’s not going to happen. So we take their word for it.
Since our Friday dinner, pronouncements from the Comelec have made me even warier.
Fidel Ramos won in 1992 with only 5,342,321 votes.
Joseph Estrada won in 1998 with 10,722,295 votes or 31.39% of registered voters then.
In 2004, Mrs Arroyo was credited with 12,905,808 votes or 29.64% of registered voters.
Given these trends, we should not be worried with an automation failure rate that could affect as much as 14.4 million voters?
There are other things I’m worried about. When I was listening to Wednesday’s Comelec and Smartmatic presentation before Senator Francis Escudero’s Senate committee, I realized that the automation left very little margin for error as far as ballot distribution is concerned.
Let me explain. In all our elections, Comelec only had to send out the number of ballots for each precinct nationwide plus a little extra for spoilage.
Now, because all the local candidates’ names from congressman down to councilor are printed at the back of each ballot, Comelec has to be very precise in delivering to every area.
In Quezon City for instance, ballots for District 1 should only go to District 1 and not anywhere else. Otherwise, the name of the candidates for congressman would be wrong. For the same reason, ballots for Quezon City cannot go to Manila since the names of the candidates for mayors and city councilors would be wrong.
For the first time, Comelec would have to practice that kind of precision especially in far-flung areas.
And some candidates could take advantage by finding ways for ballots, intended for certain areas where they are weak, to be diverted somewhere else.
From what I have seen of candidates’ behavior in previous polls, I am certain there are candidates who are even now trying to find ways to game the system for to their own advantage.
If you want to know more about what President Arroyo told FOCAP – about her hair, the grade she gave her former student Senator Noynoy Aquino, about life in the presidential palace, etc – click on the link below:
Why fellow senators want Juan Ponce Enrile out of the Senate Presidency and it’s not just because of Villar’s maneuvers
It must be positively galling, delightful and astonishing for Juan Ponce Enrile to find himself once again within sniffing distance of the presidency of the Republic at the age of 86. (He shares the same birthday as Kris Aquino – on Valentines Day).
The first time Enrile was THAT CLOSE was in the twilight of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship when he, Imelda Marcos and the military chief Fabian Ver were jostling for the top post. (This explains why Enrile made that remark to ex-President Joseph Estrada’s spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo that he had to sit through hours of Imelda’s non-stop prattle during martial law. Enrile described those painful episodes as “moments of intellectual constipation,” Margaux said.
I interviewed him then for Business Day newspaper and he came across as young, virile and dangerously attractive.
But at that time, Enrile was YES MAAM’ing Imelda all over the place despite his being the defense minister and martial law administrator. It was that or off with his head.
The second time Enrile nearly stepped inside the presidential palace was in the early days of Cory Aquino’s presidency when his clone and aide, Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan, kept trying to unseat Aquino.
Section 8. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of the President, the Vice-President shall become the President to serve the unexpired term. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of both the President and Vice-President, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall then act as President until the President or Vice-President shall have been elected and qualified.
But the problem is, Enrile’s senatorial term and the tenure of all congressmen end also this June 30, leaving a dangerous gap in political succession in case neither a President-elect nor a Vice-President elect is chosen or qualified by June 30 this year.
The Constitution states that
Where no President and Vice-President shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall act as President until a President or a Vice-President shall have been chosen and qualified.
Because of this, it is very very urgent for the Senate to replace Enrile NOW in the next few days before Congress adjourns basically for good on February 6.
Congress only resumes sessions from May 31 to June 4 to proclaim the winning president and vice-president. If there is no winner, we are in deep sh-t indeed.
So the most cautious and patriotic thing for the Senate to do is to shower Enrile with thunderous praise and ask him to make way now for someone whose term will end in 2012.
Whom do you pick as the next Senate President among these 12 senators who still have a shelf life of three more years?
Loren Legarda
Gregorio Honasan
Francis Escudero
Benigno Aquino III
Alan Cayetano
Panfilo Lacson
Manuel Villar
Edgardo Angara
Joker Arroyo
Francis Pangilinan
Miguel Zubiri
Antonio Trillanes
Your protegé, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is rushing to build you a monument after calling you a “bully”.
Does she have the presidential power to order your memorial erected in Rizal Park, in effect declaring you a national hero equal or second only to Jose Rizal?
Is there a mischievous political purpose behind the planned memorial?
President Arroyo has not told the nation how she personally feels about Aquino, whom she once told me was her only “living role model”, during an interview in October 2000, four months before Aquino helped her to power.
But there are enough indications to show that her four-year rift with Aquino, while the latter was still alive, has not been laid to rest.
Arroyo’s message of condolence upon Aquino’s death sounded stilted.
When she said “our hearts go out to the family in this hour of grief and sorrow,” she sounded and looked the same as when she said “I am sorry” following the leak of the infamous wiretapped tapes of her talking to an election official, which caused Aquino to quit her side.
Listen to the video below:
Then compare it to her message of condolence.
Arroyo’s terse message of sympathy on the death of her benefactress deviated from her usual, highly personal style of speaking. She used the word “I” only once, never mentioned Aquino’s bereaved children by name nor extended her own personal condolences or those of her own family.
If you want to read her message of condolence, click on this.
When she issued this message, she was abroad. And the 10 days of mourning she ordered for the entire nation excluded her and her entourage. They had the time of their lives wining and dining in the swankiest restaurants.
Upon her return home, she visited Arroyo’s wake for all of seven minutes and skipped the requiem mass altogether.
Why then would she want to erect a monument in her honor?
Once the shrine is built, guess who will unveil it most probably during next month’s Edsa People Power Anniversary, based on the six months deadline announced by the late presidential spokesman Cerge Remonde.
Because Arroyo ordered it built, guess whose name will forever be engraved on the same plaque embedded on the said monument.
Guess, too, who will give the keynote speech during the occasion defining the Cory legacy for future generations. And in so doing, could a kinder and gentler Arroyo also emerge for the yet unborn Filipinos who will thank her for memorializing Aquino with a shrine?
It was, ironically, Aquino and her family who gave Arroyo the head start in politics. Arroyo has since boasted that she played a major role in installing Aquino as president in 1986 by knocking on various foreign embassies for their support. But reporters and sources interviewed do not remember Arroyo at Edsa.
Arroyo’s reward for helping Aquino – an appointment to head a minor trade bureau – does not seem commensurate to a key role.
Arroyo told me in October 2000 that it was Aquino’s brother-in-law Paul who had drafted her to the Senate slate in 1992. Since she placed 13 out of 24 winning senators she had to run again in 1995. She topped that.
“That was when the thought came to me that probably he (God) wants me to try to go for a higher position (the presidency in 1998),” Arroyo said.
But Aquino refused to anoint Arroyo’s presidential bid despite the personal prodding of three people close to her: her brother, ex-Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco; the late Philippine Star columnist Teodoro Benigno; and Pastor “Boy” Saycon.
Three sources, including marketing man and now Philippine Star columnist William “Billy” Esposo” separately confirmed to me that Aquino rejected Arroyo saying ““I find her too pragmatic. She will do anything to gain the presidency.”
In the year 2000, Aquino herself would make the pragmatic move of backing Arroyo against Estrada. Six months before her death, she publicly apologized for this “mistake”.
Contrasting Presidents Arroyo and Aquino
Interestingly, both women appeared to lead parallel lives early on. Born 14 years apart, both have “Maria” appended to their baptismal names – Maria Corazon and Maria Gloria – meaning heart and glory. Their very names reflected the driving force of their personalities.
Both were locally schooled by nuns, studied at American Catholic universities, spoke European languages and married at age 21.
Both were born to political families but neither was raised to wield power. Both accidentally became president at the age of 53 after spending the early part of their adult lives rocking the cradle – producing eight children between them.
When each became president, however, the differences became marked.
Aquino wore the mantle of power like a massive allergy. She used her revolutionary powers sparingly because, as Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. told me, “she wanted to be the opposite of (the strongman Ferdinand) Marcos.
Aquino seemed to have one foot inside a nunnery and was never seen dancing nor jetting around, although reports said she played mahjong to relax. She was frugal in spending people’s money on herself. Her clothes mimicked the habit of nuns in their shapelessness and length.
While some relatives were accused of enriching themselves, her own integrity was never questioned.
Aquino knew the seduction of power but never succumbed to it. Once, her former spokesman Rene Saguisag told me an anecdote about her. During a massive adoring crowd chanted out her name, Aquino had turned to Saguisag and said, “kaya pala mga pulitiko gustong gusto ito. Nakakalasing.” (No wonder politicians love this sort of thing. It’s intoxicating.)
In stark contrast, Arroyo seems to thrive and become more comely with power although she told me once: “I’ve never been known as a great beauty.”
Last Friday, when she hosted a dinner for members of FOCAP (Foreign
Correspondents Association of the Philippines) she was stylishly turned out although in deep mourning.
She works very hard but also enjoys the perks of a traveling head of state, staying in the best hotels and eating gourmet. Since 2001, she has spent abroad the equivalent of 10 months. In last year’s first half alone, she spent over a month (43 days) overseas, according to government records.
She often stretches the powers of the presidency beyond what the 1987 Cory Constitution provides, especially when protecting herself from corruption probes.
With the planned Cory monument, it is unclear whether she has the power to even undertake it. Because before and after the regime of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, all major shrines were approved by Acts of Congress.
Both Aquino and Arroyo once promised to be transition presidents and then step down. But Arroyo went back on her word. And when the nation heard an electronic recording of Arroyo asking an election official whether she would win by one million votes during the 2004 presidential polls, Aquino bluntly told her to resign.
This episode in their intertwining lives is something Arroyo hopes history will forget. She and her aides have clearly indicated what Aquino should be remembered for. Immediately upon Aquino’s death, they confined her historical legacy to the 1986 Edsa people power uprising.
Arroyo herself called Aquino “a national treasure” because she “helped lead a revolution that restored democracy” 23 years ago. Period.
For her to call Aquino a hero for one part of her life and a heel and bully in another part could confuse the yet unborn Filipinos about Aquino’s worth as a hero. To confine Aquino’s legacy to just 1986 and disregard the 2005-2009 period could lead to a reality distortion.
Aquino’s legacy had two phases
Aquino’s struggle had two phases. The initial phase began when she returned to Manila a widow of an assassinated senator and ended when she stepped down from the presidency in 1992.
The second phase started when she stepped out of retirement three times as Citizen Cory to force all her successors – Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Arroyo – to behave as she thought presidents should.
On July 8, 2005 she publicly asked Arroyo “to make the supreme sacrifice of resigning from office” after wiretapped tapes surfaced which Aquino said “cast serious doubt on the electoral victory of the President in the recent elections.”
Two months later on September 13, 2005, she nagged Arroyo about resigning and lectured her protegé:
According to moral principles, a government that assumes or retains power through fraudulent means has no moral basis. For such an access to power is tantamount to a forcible seizure and cannot command the allegiance of the citizenry.
If such a government does not of itself freely correct the evil it has inflicted on the people, then it is our serious moral obligation as a people to make them do so.
But days later on September 22, 2005, Arroyo fired back saying -
I’m tired of chasing the bully around the schoolyard…. those who will not (heed my call) and continue to sow trouble, we will enforce the rule of law.
Although Aquino’s name wasn’t mentioned, it was clear she was among “those” being referred to.
A close Arroyo ally, Senator Miriam Santiago,then proceeded to blacken
Aquino’s name a week later by accusing the global icon of democracy of plotting to kill Arroyo. (Isn’t there a move to disqualify Santiago from running on grounds of …just asking, just asking.)
Since 2005, Aquino has never wavered from her demand for Arroyo’s resignation. From her deathbed last June, she lashed out at “the shameful abuses of the powerful that seek to destroy our sacred laws.” She clearly meant Arroyo.
Now the presidential palace, which Aquino restored to the people, wants
Filipinos to forget Arroyo ever said all those things about Aquino. Once the Arroyo-sponsored memorial is built, it would be a strange one indeed, intended for Filipinos to forget.
It was a brief incident lasting only minutes that somehow gave Senator
Benigno Aquino III that amazing power to bewitch a crowd, which he is
now harnessing to win the presidency.
The incident happened in the dead of night when President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo paid her last respects before the bier of President
Corazon Aquino, the woman who was once her role model until Mrs.
Aquino demanded she resign over leaked wiretapped tapes suggesting she
cheated in the 2004 polls.
Mrs. Aquino’s senator-son steeled himself to face Arroyo with polite
courtesy. The statesmanlike gesture impressed many since he had
earlier said he was not looking forward to such an encounter. But he
said she would be received politely since his parents taught them
well.
Unknown to the public, the meeting was also a rare encounter between a
former teacher and her student. “I was trained by GMA (as an
economist), she was my professor” in microeconomics at the Ateneo de
Manila University, Aquino said in an ambush interview.
“She gave me a B+,” he said smiling. “She was a brilliant teacher, she
communicated well…I think she taught us very sound fundamentals.”
“I never thought she’d turn out this way…her governance is primarily
for political survival,” he added.
Aquino has made no bones why he wants to replace his former teacher.
His presidential campaign website www.noynoy.ph states: “Tanggalin ang
tiwali. Itama ang mali.” (Remove the corrupt. Correct the wrong.)
He said his teacher had apparently forgotten her own lectures on the
importance of matching unlimited wants with limited resources.
Switching to lecture mode himself, Aquino said: “You take a project
like North Rail and contrast it to South Rail by the Koreans. Koreans
will build a 34 kilometer-narrow gauge railway system for US$50
million.”
“The first phase of North Rail is US$503 million for 32 kilometers
that will be made by China, (while the) 34 kilometers of South Rail
(is) US$50 million.”
“In China the wages are lower than they are in Korea; the equipment,
same thing; consultants, same thing. Why is it that the cost of the
Korean project is only 10% of North Rail?”
He then noted that “there is a comparable railway system in Australia,
not less than 1000 kilometers (in length), standard gauge (tracks),
double decker (coaches). Its rolling stock is faster” and the entire
thing cost a total of US$1 billion. “Ours is 32 kilometers at US$503
million dollars.”
“So, as an economist, where is the matching (of) the needs and the
wants? Where is the maximum utilization of resources” which Arroyo,
his former professor, used to drum into their heads as students.
He criticized the North Rail transport system that Arroyo was pushing
as an example of “less bang for the buck.”
If he becomes president, he said he would like the government to get to the bottom of the scandals that have long hounded President Arroyo:
the fertilizer scam;
the scuttled telecommunications deal between the government and ZTE Corporation of China;
and of course the wiretapped tapes where a voice sounding very much like Arroyo asked election official Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano if she would win by a million votes in the 2004 polls. At one point, Garcillano recommended that a poll officer be kidnapped to prevent her from speaking out, and the voice that sounded like Arroyo said nothing against the suggestion.
“Those issues are unresolved and I want them resolved,” Aquino said.
As for those accusing him of engaging in the politics of vengeance, he
said he was just being consistent: “Hey, I was participant to so many
impeachments (filed in Congress against her) that never even got to
the stage of accepting the evidence.”
“We (the Liberal Party) supported impeachment moves but we were always
thwarted. We were trying to uncover some allegations.” He paid dearly
for publicly backing calls for Arroyo’s resignation over the Garci
scandal. Arroyo’s ruling party sacked him from the deputy speaker
post.
If his past action is any indication, his former economics professor
can expect to be given her day in court. When Aquino ran for the
Senate in 2007, among his rivals was Gregorio Honasan, a colonel whose
men nearly killed Aquino when they tried to take over Malacanang
Palace during a military coup attempt against his mother on August 28,
1987.
On the way to the palace, Honasan’s men fired at Aquino’s convoy.
Three of his bodyguards were killed and the fourth was wounded. Five
bullets hit Aquino and all but one was removed. Doctors told him it
was lodged too near the carotid artery and nerve bundle that controls
facial expressions. It was too risky to take out. He said it does not
affect his thinking or his health, but it has twinged at times in the
cold.
Despite what had happened, Aquino supported Honasan’s request for bail
in 2007 to enable the latter to campaign for his Senate re-election.
Honasan was then in detention over his alleged role as mastermind of
the 2003 coup attempt against Arroyo.
Aquino, whose boyhood dream was to become a soldier, said he wanted an
even fight with Honasan. “I was hit by bullets from Honasan’s men in
the neck and hips, but that’s past now. The principle of my father was
`respect the rights even of your enemies… genuine reconciliation is
democracy in action’.”
Both won, but Aquino had a three million vote edge over Honasan.
For Aquino, holding Arroyo accountable is part of his personal
advocacy to make democracy work. He said the “diminishing democratic
space that we’re experiencing now is reverting us back to an
authoritarian type of rule.” As president, he wants “to prove that
democracy works for everybody in the country, regardless of your
strata.”
“My advocacy is centered in making the institutions of democratic governance work so that it takes root and serves the interests of the many as against those of the few and powerful,” he posted on his website when he for senator in 2007. “In a working democracy the government exists to ensure the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources. Democracy will be the solid foundation on which economic progress would be based.”
The statements are an indictment of his brilliant professor whose
tenure as president has been marked with scandals involving the
alleged use of high connections to corner fat government contracts.
But Prof. Arroyo apparently judged Aquino to be just average. He never
joined her cabinet like her brilliant students did. He never made
waves as a lawmaker and, according to Ateneo-based political analyst
Benito Lim, Aquino would not have won as congressman and senator if
his mother, Corazon, had not campaigned for him.
Here lies the core of the criticisms against Sen. Aquino – he has not
accomplished enough to deserve the presidency and he is banking on the
emotional wellspring of goodwill and sympathy towards his dead
parents.
Almost 250,000 people went to his mother’s funeral. Shortly before she
was entombed, a number of Filipinos already started posting messages
on the social networking site Facebook that they felt orphaned by the
death and wanted the son to fill the void and continue his mother’s
fight for democracy by running for president.
The next day, “people brought yellow ribbons to Aquino’s house on
Times Street and a streamer – Noynoy for president,” Prof. Lim noted.
“It’s very clear they wanted to ride on the popularity of the mother,
the Cory magic.” Other politicians had started doing this, so “why not
the son?”
Even if the son looked and sounded anything but a politician – at 49,
he was slightly stooped and balding and looked professorial. His
speech announcing h would run for the presidency sounded like a priestly
homily.
During the brief interview, Aquino rejected the notion that he had
accomplished very little and he was not his own man. “I have
difficulty self promoting, self aggrandizing,” said the lawmaker who
served nine years in the House and two years in the Senate.
Of the nine Senate bills he has filed, two promote workers’ rights and four
try to curb the powers of the post which he aspires for. Much of his
time is taken up with holding Arroyo accountable for alleged
presidential misdeeds, which is part of a senator’s job under the Constitution.
One legacy his mother left which could prove to be a liability is the
clan’s continued control of vast landholdings in Hacienda Luisita.
Aquino said the matter was awaiting court resolution and he appeared
reluctant to talk about it.
Aquino has demonstrated he does not easily cut compromise deals. A
year ago, he voted (along with another presidential candidate Senator
Francis Escudero) against ratifying the Japan-Philippine Economic
Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) because he was holding out for “a better
negotiated and mutually beneficial treaty.”
Senator Mar Roxas, his vice-presidential running mate now, voted “yes” even if he said he believed it was lopsided. It was the best deal that could be cut, he said.
Last September 2009, Aquino as chair of the Senate committee on local
governments was supposed to sponsor a measure creating a new
congressional district in Camarines Sur tailor-made for President
Arroyo’s son, Congressman Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo.
Aquino refused to sponsor it, leaving administration Senator Joker Arroyo, who is unrelated to the president, to defend the measure. In a nearly empty Senate session hall, the young Aquino verbally sparred with Sen. Arroyo who had once defended his father, Senator Benigno Jr., before a military court.
Arroyo urged his former client’s son to pass the bill “then let the Supreme Court decide.” As if to assuage the younger man, Arroyo closed his end of the argument with a surprising show of support. He said, “Noynoy, good luck on your presidency.”
The following month after the bill became law, Aquino personally took the matter to the Supreme Court and asked the body to declare it unconstitutional. The matter remains pending.
Unlike President Arroyo’s eldest son Juan Miguel, who became a
politician on his mother’s first year in the presidential palace,
Aquino was a late-starter. He only ran for office at age 38 and when
his mother was six years out of power.
Although much has been written about Aquino’s famous parents, very
little is known about him and why he remains single to this day. Asked
why he wasn’t married, he narrated an incident in his youth when his
family visited his detained father who was in the military stockade.
He said he noticed a young male detainee also being visited by his
young wife. Then suddenly she stopped coming and they never saw her
again.
“It was as if she had said to her husband she couldn’t love him for
better or for worse.” He said it made him examine the life of his own
family – “our life was perhaps not easy and was not going to be easy.
That would make you pause and think, maybe this would also be part of
my fate.”
“Maybe God has not given (me a life partner) because there are still
many things he’s asking to be done, so that no one else will be
involved in the pain.” (This feature first appeared in Asian Dragon magazine, which allowed me to post it on my blog.)
I believe the true test of a democratic nation is the ability of its people to sack their leaders ritually through fraud-free elections. And to criticize and hold them accountable without fear of being buried by a backhoe.
Categories: Ampatuan massacre, Ex-defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Journalism, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and family, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III | 
Tags: Ampatuan massacre, FOCAP, Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Gilberto Teodoro, Jim Gomez of Associated Press, Malacanang Palace, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, presidential accountability, Senator Benigno Aquino III | 
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