Is FPJ too scared to ‘debate’ unless protected by cheering fans who’ll boo his rivals?

You can win the applause and cheers of the mob, but you cannot run a country – and, for that matter, feed the masa who’re your fervent admirers – on macho posturing, wisecracks, and one-liners.

Sayang. If our movie idol, Fernando Poe Jr. (alias Ronnie), who started out like a house on fire, doesn’t stop playing to the peanut gallery, and basing his campaign language on a rehash of the scripts of his old movies, he’ll fizzle out before the end of the campaign.

He may not even have to worry about whether the Supreme Court could throw him out on the "natural-born" issue. If what we’re now hearing is his "natural-born mouth" – he’ll self-destruct. No thanks to GMA but to his own "star-complex" – egged on by his loudly cheering fans and showbiz supporters.

Rival candidate Raul Roco of Aksyon Democratiko was clever to bait both Panday and President Macapagal-Arroyo with a challenge to a "debate" on the issues.

If she accepts the invitation to debate with Roco, GMA will find herself defending her record, her governance, and herself – on such allegations as graft, being "married-to-graft", being dominated by The Firm, fast deals and scams, the astounding external debt (from endless foreign borrowing), the collapse of the peso, et cetera.

If FPJ agrees to debate, in turn, Roco will insist on discussing issues, platforms, plans, economics, finance, preparedness, track record (not film credits) and so forth. Raul’s attack would probably focus on FPJ’s lack of focus, not just lack of diploma; his total inexperience in governance. Being an actor and a Direk, even the most successful one, is a far cry from even Pareng Erap’s credentials.

When he ran for President, Jose Ejercito Estrada (not Velarde) was, after all, a mayor, a senator and a vice-president before he sought the Presidency. In truth Erap was one of the "best prepared", on the factual ledger, for Chief Executive, despite his lack of an Ateneo diploma.

FPJ need not have agreed to slug it out on the mischievous Roco’s chosen field of combat. He could simply have shrugged it off, saying he was too busy campaigning and bringing his "message" to the people, spelling out his platform and his plans to the proper audiences (including decision-makers) to engage in "oratorical contests".

But, instead, he chose to belligerently parade his populism, milk the masses and kapus-palad for cheap applause, make everyone suspect he’s not brainy enough to verbally joust with the likes of Raul R. unless he can camouflage his inability to bring forth ideas, express himself articulately, or win a "debate" by surrounding himself with adoring fans in the slum areas, who’ll demoralize his opponents by booing them.

In Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya the other day, Ronnie rejected the proposed television debate, but dared his rivals in turn to "debate" with him in the depressed communities where the poor could throw questions at them. Yeh, Ronnie, including catcalls, rotten eggs, and ripe tomatoes. The poor can already, and are already, throwing questions at candidates on television hook-ups, like ABS-CBN’s Dong Puno Live, and so on.

Rather than showing strength, the Poe rejoinder reflected insecurity. It also demonstrated sophistry. Unless he was misquoted – but this is unlikely – FPJ was said to have asserted, "Kung sa loob na aircon na kuwarto sa television, radio stations, huwag na lang, papogi lang ’yan." What a thing to say on the part of a matinee idol who rose to fame and adulation by exhibiting action epics and derring-do films featuring his own heroism, in air-conditioned theaters, and continuously repeated FPJ screen re-runs on TV. Show biz, after all, is papogi ’yan lang, or it’s "all for show". Including make-up, carefully-constructed lighting and sound effects.

Politics and show biz seem to be one and the same here. Which is why there are so many show biz characters in the game. Judging from the most recent dismaying surveys, they may even dominate the "new" Senate.

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Our friend Ronnie Poe, when he set out on his quest for the Presidency, admirably declared that he wanted to be President "of all Filipinos", not just one segment of our society. He’d do well to remember this. What we’ve begun to hear is an increasing crescendo of "pro-poor" rhetoric, and a pandering to the masa to the exclusion of the middle classes, and, yes to invoke the Bad Word, the capitalists – investors, financiers, and the "educated". Poor-versus-Rich. The "I’m for the masa, because they’ve got the most votes" syndrome.

Sure, FPJ’s buddy Erap rode the Erap "Jeepney" to Malacañang, but he also shrewdly understood that the jeepney needed gasoline (or diesel) to run, as well as a financier to buy the original jeepney. I hope FPJ and his TRAPO and showbiz backstoppers aren’t beginning to miss that point. When all is said and done, who’ll have to be tapped to give the masa jobs and create employment and to increase food and industrial production?

Even more urgently, at this stage, a candidate needs money and logistics to run a campaign, even on the final day to get his voters to the polling precincts.

Finally, whoever wins will need even more financing – investment in agriculture and industry (to create more jobs) in the form of both local and foreign investment. Poe’s recent rhetorical populist braggadocio is turning those very money-taps off.

Ate Glo, for the past three years, has been playing the same "populist" card with less than salutary effect. She’s been Gloria Labandera, she’s given away everything to the poor – land titles, largesse, no-squatter-removal-without Malacañang-permission, you name it. Yet, after all those giveaway efforts, FPJ can see for himself he’s outpointing her in masa idolatry and ululations. Yet, the favor of the crowd is fickle, as Jesus himself discovered within less than a week in Jerusalem.

As for Poe’s vaunted list of impressive business and economics advisers, it’s reminiscent of the list of advisers produced by Cory "The Housewife Without Any Experience" when she was running against the Dictator Marcos. Did this "adviser" thing work when Cory became President and had to run a turbulent post-Marcos country? There were thousands of strikes, palpaks, and coup attempts. Good intentions, it’s clear, are never enough.

Those who believe FPJ can provide the leadership this country needs are now crossing their fingers. They hope he’ll shape up and get back on track. As of now, the FPJ Express may be heading towards derailment.

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President GMA is not faring much better either. Just look at the new commissioners she recently appointed to the Commission on Elections.

Comelec ad-interim appointee Virgilio Garcillano alleged, after a furor arose over his "Poe is not qualified" comment to the Supreme Court, that the High Court had asked him and his newly-hatched colleague, Commissioner Manuel Barcelona, for their individual comments on the Fornier appeal to disqualify PFJ.

Was he kidding? All one has to do to discover this allegation is out of whack is peruse the High Court’s actual en banc resolution of February 11, 2004 in G.R. NO. 161824 (Victorino Z. Fornier vs. Commission on Elections and Ronald Allan Kelley Poe a.k.a. Fernando Poe, Jr.).

Nowhere in the Supreme Court’s 2-page resolution is there any directive asking the new Comelec Commissioners Garcillano and Barcelona, or the newly-returned-from-abroad Florentino Tuason to submit their own "comments" on the Fornier petition and the FPJ disqualification case. The resolution simply required "the respondents to comment on the petition not later than 5:00 p.m., 16 February 200, Monday." It is the Commission on Elections itself which is the respondent in G.R. No. 161824, not the individual Commissioners Garcillano, Barcelona and Tuason. In this case, the Comelec had already registered its comment, even before Garcillano and Barcelona were appointed by President GMA, or Tuason got back from an out-of-town trip. This is the en banc Comelec resolution rejecting the Fornier appeal and saying Poe is natural-born Filipino. Which is why Justice Reynato S. Puno pointedly asked during last Thursday’s marathon hearing why individual separate comments were filed by the three Comelec officials.

Worse, it was observed, the two ad-interim Commissioners had not yet been members of the poll body when the Fornier petition was deliberated upon and resolved by the Comelec’s first division, and, thereafter, the entire body sitting en banc.

Palace Spokesman Ignacio "Toti" Bunye has asserted that if there is "solid evidence" against Garcillano’s appointment, his appointment will be recalled. C’mon, Mr. Secretary. Garcillano’s questionable and controversial appointment is not a criminal case in a court of law; i.e., where his guilt must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. (Since Congress is not in session, Mr. G’s appointment has not been "confirmed" by the Commission on Appointments either.)

Whatever happened to the old dictum of Caesar’s wife? As they used to require as a litmus test of validity, ". . . like Caesar’s wife, a person would not merely be virtuous, but should appear virtuous." How does Garcillano appear, even not counting the surprising objection of FPJ he submitted to the Supreme Court?

Many of our citizens are, alas, growing pessimistic that some institutions which should have the respect of our population will survive the May 2004 elections. We need not wait for the May polls to see the erosion of faith and confidence in the Comelec.

Sad to say, two recent events badly shook this faith: The Supreme Court’s rebuff of the Comelec in the Mega Pacific automated counting machines case, and the recent ad-interim appointments of Garcillano and Barcelona.

What a strange thing the two did immediately after being sent to the Comelec by the President.