It’s great to have this confirmed by an SWS poll conducted from November 27 to December 5 – this is a statistic higher than the 81 percent who expressed "hope" almost exactly a year ago.
That’s what we’ve been saying, without statistical "evidence" from the very beginning. The Filipino is like IVORY soap – he floats. Come privation or disappointment, for all our sins and shortcomings, the Filipino optimism is boundless – buttressed by the almost universal trust in the goodness of God.
And so, a Happy New Year!
We live in hope. We will overcome.
The problems of leadership, of course, have followed her up to the highlands – these could never be left behind in the plains. A President can never go "on vacation" like normal persons: she is always on the razor’s edge of decision-making, "on call" every minute of day and night (and I don’t mean a "Hello Garci" cellphone).
Without doubt, the Chief Executive will be announcing her New Year’s Resolutions. There’s one resolve she must adopt, and it will be pronounced by action rather than propaganda press release: the decision to do her best, not live from day to day "transacting" her political survival. The only way GMA, as our leader, can improve her standing with the people is by abandoning her "transactional" style of government.
The Palace has, in a way, confirmed that there will be some sort of Cabinet revamp. Let this revamp, if it takes place, be meaningful then, not based on reward or "seduction" (in exchange for support). But who are we to propose who should be in her Cabinet or who should be dropped?
When she first took over in January 2001, ascending to the Presidency when Erap fell, she told this writer that one of the biggest problems was the "corrupt bureaucracy." I had replied then: "In that case, Mrs. President, that must be your mission – to reform, or even replace the bureaucracy." Has there been any progress on this score? Nada.
The crooked bureaucracy, for all the tons of "praise releases" remains the bane of our society.
Perhaps, getting the bureaucrats to shape up, or kicking out the villains was too much to expect of an ordinary President who finds the Presidential "power" clipped, frustrated, or hemmed in by a thicket of legalistic obstacles.
For much the same reason, it is a pity that former President Corazon C. Aquino missed the opportunity that the first and only real "People Power" revolution, the EDSA triumph of February 1986, had offered her. We had begged her to really consider hers a "Revolutionary Government," so that the corrupt in government and in the bureaucracy could be arrested, or fired, without the Presidential orders being defied by the ungodly, citing "civil service" protection. After all, many of the bureaucratic crooks had been in place during the 20-year Marcos hegemony, and therefore enjoyed the permanence of their "civil service" records.
As I had argued fruitlessly: "Once the lawyers come back, Madam President, you will be able to do nothing."
Sad to say, the "Revolutionary government" idea – which in truth hers was, since "legally" Ferdinand Marcos had been "reelected" by his own servile Comelec – was never implemented. The Task Forces the Cory government sent out to establish reforms were seduced into becoming "Ask Forces." The temptation to take over the corrupt coils of the bureaucracy and enrich "themselves enticed many of the would-be "reformers" – the others proved to be hypocrites and schemers – into becoming rich or political warlords themselves. Cory was "the saint," but within her saintly court, corruption insidiously flourished, almost as wickedly as during the conjugal rule of Macoy and Super-Ma’am.
This is a country, it must ruefully be admitted, where crime continues to pay. Lord Acton of England is remembered for only one quote, too often repeated: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In this land, power corrupts – and (for those who have it) is absolutely delightful.
This is what we must decisively change in the Year 2006. How? It’s up to all of us, working together, embracing tough choices together – we must stop waiting for a Messiah.
Perhaps this is why God took away our most beloved leaders at the height of their popularity – when they were, like the Biblical pillar of fire, "leading" us to the promised Land. Thus we lost President Ramon Magsaysay in a plane crash in Cebu. In the same manner, we lost Ninoy Aquino, who had been our hope. But he said it well when he told me, after I had warned him he would be killed if he returned to the Philippines. "If I should die," Ninoy had replied, "then so be it. But I hope my death will provoke our people to stand up and fight for themselves!"
And this is what happened. The murder at the airport on August 21, 1983, led to the People Power uprising at the EDSA barricades of February 1986.
We will have to stand up for ourselves – all together. Not just hoping, but working to achieve both success and salvation, I guess.
We are a great nation, lacking unselfishness and unity. Hopefully we shall come together in 2006. Who knows, that may be the next Miracle.