Ronnie Poe and the pols

For Christmas, all politicians who crave the presidency in 2004 wish Santa would tie a ribbon around Fernando "Ronnie" Poe, Jr. and deliver him to them as a timely vice presidential gift. Should this be impossible on account of politicians failing to be sufficiently good boys – or girls – for 2002 or 2003, their second-best wish is that Poe gets to be noticed by Hollywood and joins the Lord of the Rings as a potential Oscar-award winning blacksmith, a surrealist Filipino panday no less.

There is no greater terror for presidentiable politicians now than that Poe would consider the country’s presidency, mount his rented white horse, gallop towards Malacañang and save the nation come 2004. The Abu Sayyaf, the Jemaah Islamiyah and the al-Qaeda put together do not intimidate these pols as much. After all, when the going gets tough with these terrorist groups, the tough pols do get going fast, very fast. They invariably call on their favorite uncle and trading whatever is left of their nation’s no longer plentiful patrimony, Green Berets, Navy Seals and an assorted number of Delta Force characters come to bail them out.

Ronnie Poe is an altogether different matter. There is no precedent for an uncle coming to help the pols against a box office panday as lovable as this one. Besides, Poe too could call on the same uncle and legitimately point out that he has superior claims to nephewship than other presidential pols. To the pols’ utter dismay, "Uncle!" cannot possibly work its historical white magic against Ripley’s fist-pumping, often wristband-sporting, definitely charismatic Poe. Neither would the incantations of black – or red – magic work. The guy does not appear to be even a closet communist and his libido is well within the country’s priestly norms.

But why would Poe as a presidential candidate be such a terror to the pols? After all, all Philippine constitutions invoke the "sovereign will of the people" and it is inconceivable that this "sovereign will" will not manifest itself — sooner or later anyway – in any COMELEC-supervised Philippine elections. Is this sovereign choice of Poe come May 2004 such a terrible error of judgment in a country that trumpets its democratic virtues no end?

Pols point out that there is a basic problem with "the sovereign will" as it decides national elections. It is swayed much by popularity alone, not by the more noble considerations of merit as fortified by one’s knowledgeability, experience and demonstrated capability as a public official. Pols are unable to compete with the Poe because while they may be infinitely more noble, the latter is simply much more popular. Popularity makes for an extremely uneven playing field, with all the highs going for someone like Poe and all the lows being relegated to the pitiful pols.

Pols with this perspective are actually unkind to those they profess to be sovereign in their enervated republic. Historically, Filipinos had been faithful to the pols in sickness and in ill health until, in a moment of bitter resentment and understandable weakness, they decided to take up with a charismatic street rogue. As it turned out, it was really no more than a fling, an interlude that was heady, brief and predictably disastrous.

From that sad experience, however, Filipinos learned to demand of their political consorts not only that they be madaling lapitan, matulungin and may malasakit sa mahirap. Since December 2001, surveyed Filipinos have made maalam magpatakbo ng pamahalaan and may kakayahang ayusin ang bansa more imperative traits for those who would be their political leaders. The street rouge’s legacy to this country has not been easy to appreciate, but there is no denying it for people who have a sharper sense of their political history. Beyond innocuous innocence is valuable knowledge; beyond an imprudent romance and the predictable fall, a people grown wiser with experience develops a fuller sense of responsibility for their national condition.

Pols forget that experience could be the best teacher. They also forget that their people could and do learn from experience.

That Poe should now terrorize the pols is testimony primarily to the incompetence and irresponsibility of most pols in this country. Politically, Poe is not so much a towering figure as the pols have been largely such cretinous dwarfs. Between the tradpols and Poe – if it were again to be a forced choice in 2004 — the choice would still be easy, as the pols rightly fear. What would be difficult is showing how either choice benefits the nation as a whole.

Filipinos in 2004 do not have to settle for Poe-or-the pols situation. They have enough time and considerable necessity to enable a much better choice to come about – a breed of politicians that will take democracy seriously and commit uncompromisingly to making it work well.

To identify this rara avis, a simple procedure might be used. Locate any political figure who refuses to win the presidency with Poe as his/her vice-president, or, alternatively, seek a political figure who refuses to win as the Poe’s shoo-in vice-president. Such political freaks are the only ones who will truly and invariably serve the nation’s interests. The public would do well to seek this rare species and, sighting them, beseech them to contest the elections of 2004.

The great majority of those who fail this procedure are pols, the historical run-of-the-mill type who still hopes that Poe might be simply another politician, someone who could be most comfortable in the pols’ ever-accomodating political bed. Beyond merely hoping, the more industrious pols have now made a run for rosaries and are praying as they have never prayed before. A pol is bad enough, but – paraphrasing a Nobelist – a religious pol is a country’s absolutely unmitigated evil.