Kingdom of the blind

Dans le royaume des aveugles, les borgnes sont roi. Simply translated, this means: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king. This, I venture to say, is what is happening in the Philippines today. The one-eyeds lead our nation today. And it’s no surprise that we Filipinos have traversed a bumpy road, tossing hither and yon, often losing our direction as we follow our one-eyed leaders who have no map whatsoever as to where the republic is going.

This old and jaded wayfarer looks at the presidential campaign for the 2004 elections and is shocked beyond belief.

Those in the lead comprise the sorriest pack of presidential candidates or aspirants mine eyes have ever beheld. Gone are the days when you had Quezons, Osmeñas, Manglapuses, Rectos, Roxases, Magsay-says, Laurels and even Macapagals running for the presidency. Gone too are the days when just one fleeting look at the political landscape showed the presence of Arsenio Lacson, Lorenzo Sumulong, Quintin Paredes, Ambrosio Padilla, Jose Diokno, Benigno Aquino Jr., Wenceslao Vinzons, Carmen Planas.

All sturdy and brilliant political warriors they. They gladdened the eye as they stormed the hustings to regale the electorate with their flair, erudition, eloquence and wisdom. Recto’s mind, his literary artistry, his political insights, his love of country, his nationalism were incomparable. And yet when he ran for the presidency, he got so badly beaten that he uttered the classic: "I was expecting defeat, but not a disaster."

Very few know today it was Don Claro who fought with might and main in the Senate that two books be included in the school curriculum. He was hounded. He was insulted and vilified by some so-called princes and paladins of the Roman Catholic Church who argued Recto would poison the Filipino student’s mind with those books. And what were those two books. Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. That was the big debate that raged in Philippine politics then. It was a wham of a debate and it held the spectator spellbound.

It was then, I think, that Don Claro Recto let loose his famous declaration that in the Philippines, it was a case of the blind leading the blind. For indeed, why bar the doors of academe to the great writings of Dr. Jose Rizal, precisely the Noli and the Fili which greatly stirred the Filipino mind and ignited the Philippine revolution against Spain? But he won. Recto did – with élan. And we are forever indebted to this great mind who scribbled the commandments of Filipino nationalism on the Senate wall.

There were other great debates, those on parity and the rolling, tumbling waves of lofty patriotic discussion that led to the Tydings-McDuffie Act and the Jones Law. These were the glory days of Philippine politics. And if I remember them even more vividly today, it is because to look at Malacañang today, to look at the Senate and the House is to look – in terms of politics – at Sodom and Gomorrha. It is a politics of decay and decomposition, of entrenched gread and one wonders. Will there ever be an end to it?

Already, former president Fidel Valdez Ramos fulminates against the rich, the powerful families that ride saddle on the nation.

It’s funny. FVR would never have talked this way before. He denounced before the Makati Business Club the "unholy alliance between business and politics" then blasted this one out of the park: "It is time we put an end to this perverse symbiosis for our endemic problems of greedy rent-seeking, crony capitalism and patronage politics." Well!

Looking at our presidential aspirants alone makes all of us accept the proposition that one-eyeds are leading the blind. What can Senators Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan really do for the country if either one should be elected president in 2004? The former has a baggage that many believe has been swept ashore by the rapacious pirates of Long John Silver. And now Mr. Lacson is in terrible trouble because he wiped that line in the ground and took direct aim at the lives of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and his spouse no less, the President of the Philippines. I could never have imagined the Messrs. Recto and Laurel doing that.

There was another Lacson, Arsenio H. Lacson. Arsenic too was rough and tough, his entire athletic body a balled fist, his mouth a howitzer, and President Carlos Garcia feared his verbal tirades. At one time, it is told, President Garcia entreated Arsenic to spare him his verbal insults. But Arsenic had a greater dimension that endeared him to the public. He was a fighter for all causes, even lost causes. He could when he wanted, and this was often, don the garb of Sir Galahad and go full tilt into the high and the mighty. He was a ring master’s bruiser indeed but Lacson also had the rare mind and intellect that could light fires in the world of academe and the intelligentsia.

* * *

This Lacson and Honasan cannot do.

Honasan lives and acts in a world of make-believe. He fancies himself as the Messiah, God’s gift to Philippine soldiery, the Pied Piper of the young, idealist Filipino officer. His Round Table is culled from the Philippine Military Academy. I had dinner just so many nights ago with a top Filipino general. And he admitted that in the PMA, they do not teach patriotism and love of country. Courage yes, honor yes, the Mistah cult yes. But, it is never branded deep in any PMA cadet that country comes first before anything else. Patria is not adorada in the PMA.

Former president Fidel Ramos told me the same thing many years ago. He said PMA graduates easily get unhinged because the republic, the notion of nation and the notion of national patrimony are hardly inculcated in them during the four years they are bonded in the PMA. At the time he said this, General Panfilo Lacson was hip-deep in charges he was the principal in the Kuratong Baleleng massacre, and he seemingly at the time fled the country. Only to return when the Office of the Ombudsman dropped his status from principal to accessory. As principal, if arrested, he was not entitled to bail.

Now the two senators are in hot water in a Senate notorious for having given both the facade of nobility and sanctuary. Let’s see how events unravel as the Senate takes on the unenviable task of investigating their two compeers. Ah, we’re back to the blind leading the blind.

It’s a good thing FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) finally decided against entering politics and running for the presidency. He did the right thing. If he said yes, he would have been a twirling top, a robot, a puppet in the hands of right-wing politicians. And if elected president, he would go down in history as the man who pardoned or amnestied Joseph Ejercito Estrada who could be convicted and sentenced to death for charges of plunder. Congratulations, Ronnie.

And Noli de Castro, the legendary kabayan of the broadcast industry who now rules the presidential surveys?

I have always been loathe to stick staves into the breast of Noli de Castro. First, there is an unwritten law among us in the press or media not to hit each other frontally. Second, Noli at least on the surface breathes civility and is no Kit Tatad who snarls like a pit dog or Miriam Defensor Santiago who descends from a broom and pins you against the wall with florid insults and invectives. Or JPE (Juan Ponce Enrile), known far and wide as the political godfather of Gringo Honasan.

But fair is fair. Noli has chosen to wade chest-deep into politics. And now, like anybody else, he is fair game for comment and the slings and arrows of political fortune, outrageous or not. Noli is that rare bird of a genus still to be identified who has skyrocketed to fame merely on the behavior of his tonsils. His "Magandang gabi bayan!" is just about as popular as Bayang Magiliw and his Tagalog inflection is said to be verbally redolent of Balagtas at his best. That’s it. The voice. Just the voice.

Does Noli de Castro speak English?

I really do not know. Nobody seems to really know. Of course, he speaks English. But the question is: Does he speak the kind of English that would qualify him for Malacañang? No intention to belittle Pilipino or Tagalog here, the national language. But English happens to be the world’s lingua franca. Our indispensable lingua franca. And any Filipino president who is not at home with the language risks being the butt of jokes in international councils. Even Erap’s limited Ateneo English exposed him to contempt and ridicule. Another question? Does Noli de Castro ever really think? I mean think literature, philosophy, the arts, the classics, history, economics, globalization, information technology.

Now we go to Raul Roco. He is very obviously, so many say, the best of the lot. But of late he has been in a kind of boozy slumber like Rip Van Winkle, saying nothing for weeks as the world around him soared and roared. Although he promises to fare forth in the coming months with political explosives, the kind you never heard before. Let’s hope so. Because if he doesn’t, my friend Raul will be swallowed by events.

And GMA? As we said earlier: In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One-Eyed is King.