Game-changer 2

Should Noynoy Aquino decide to run for president of this country, it should be on the basis of a people’s draft. That is, after all, the essential point of this exercise.

Ignore that crap about “going through the process” of a vote from within the ranks of the Liberal Party (LP). That is a ploy by the politicians to destroy Noynoy as an icon of people’s power by subjecting him to the indignity of horse-trading.

How dare the LP spokesmen impose on Noynoy. How dare they even attempt to contain him by the suggestion he run for the vice-presidency. The Aquino scion, over the past few days, has become larger than the LP. Very much larger.

Since I proposed, last week, that Noynoy Aquino could possibly be the game-changer in an otherwise uninspiring presidential contest taking shape, so much has happened. So much has happened so quickly.

Ed Roces has begun collecting signatures from people who commit to support a Noynoy presidential bid. There is a bit of retro appeal here. Ed’s father, Don Chino, spearheaded the collection of a million signatures in late 1985 urging Cory to run for president. Those signatures were a major factor leading to her fateful decision to challenge the sitting dictator.

The old network of the Cory Aquino for President Movement (CAPM) is now being rehabilitated as the Noynoy Aquino for President Movement (NAPM).

The reformist group Kaya Natin, which had earlier considered drafting governors Ed Panlilio and Grace Padaca to form an alternative ticket, has quickly reconfigured its strategy. The reformist movement now supports a Noynoy draft.

Bro. Eddie Villanueva who, only recently, declared he was taking a second crack at the presidency, now appears inclined to support a Noynoy bid. He did not have the voting base to win the first time. But with a broad coalition, his endorsement could bring enough votes to carry Noynoy over the top.

Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, estranged from his colleagues in the LP, had considered running for the vice-presidency as an independent. Now, he is trying to reestablish contact with the cause-oriented groups seriously considering entering the campaign should Noynoy decide to contest the presidency.

Surprisingly, siblings Imee and Bongbong Marcos have endorsed a presidential bid by Noynoy. This finally signals the end of the bitter rivalry between the Marcos and Aquino clans that had been a strong undercurrent of our politics for four decades. They could help deliver a strong Northern Luzon vote for Noynoy.

Nationwide, political leaders are seriously watching what Noynoy would do. Should the call for Noynoy to seek the presidency snowball, many of them will readily cut their existing party allegiances and join a new crusade for good government.

Those who think that a Noynoy candidacy is entirely reliant on the imponderable residues of the “Cory Magic” are seriously mistaken. A large part of the growing consensus behind a Noynoy candidacy is, in fact, a rebellion against politics-as-usual.

A lot of people are refusing to buy into the perverse logic of traditional politics where the moneyed decide among themselves who the mass of voters will choose from. They no longer want a pre-selected menu of choices. They want to select the candidates themselves.

This is why Noynoy should run only on the basis of a people’s draft and not through the conventional route of a party endorsement. That draft will set the tone for a campaign that will be, in the main, reliant on the voluntarism of grassroots activists. It will set the basis for a presidency that is not indebted to the old powerbrokers and the illogic of money politics. It will predicate a leadership installed to pursue the general interest, not vested interests.

The force of a Noynoy presidential run rests not on conventional party organizations and the support of the usual powerbrokers. It is a concept that draws its power from the people’s direct intervention into the electoral arena.

No one else could activate that force than Noynoy. Only he, as a matter of birthright as well as personality, could catalyze that force which could change the dynamics of our electoral democracy.

There are those who choose the lower road, sniping at Noynoy, saying he should first “be his own man” before seeking the presidency. They miss the point completely.

Noynoy is an icon. An icon is not supposed to be a superman. He simply designates the rallying point around which the latent forces of our politics could congregate, could become an irresistible force. The icon sets the premise for the servant-leadership so many of us so desperately want.

Only two voices have so far spoken against the prospect of Noynoy becoming a presidential contender. Both are stained by the narrowest of interests.

The first voice comes from Natdem cadres from a group called Solidarity. They say Noynoy did not support their version of agrarian reform. That is a smokescreen. Solidarity belongs to the galaxy of Bayan Muna which had cut a deal with Villar, exchanging their support for a senatorial slot reserved for Satur Ocampo. That selfish concern blinds their politics as it has always done in the past, beginning from when they boycotted the 1986 elections to conserve the primacy of their armed struggle agenda.

The second voice comes from somewhere in the little folds of the LP. It suggests that the idea of Noynoy running is a Trojan Horse intended to split that miniscule party. To begin with the LP has been chronically split for as long as we can remember. The party did not back Ninoy when he decided to contest the 1978 elections. There was a “Roxas wing” and a “Kalaw wing” and now an “Atienza wing” within that party.

What that voice is really trying to say is that we junk the idea of Noynoy running and not rock the boat (or rock the vote). They just want to do things the old way and lose as they have always done.