The son also rises

“Hail to the Chief!”

This was the resounding cry at the Batasan yesterday, as Benigno Aquino III, was proclaimed the new president of the Republic. Also proclaimed, was Jejomar Binay, as vice-president.

The proclamation of Aquino was the climax of many months of intense squabbling, whining, mudslinging, trumping up of charges, of felling down rivals for the most coveted position in the government. It had been a season of media blitzkriegs, of winning and failing strategies, of sweat and tears and remonstrations.

It was an avowedly different welcome electoral season — it having introduced the first automated election process that proved that machine can outsmart the Filipino politician so reared in the culture of cheating and buying and selling votes, and winning and losing by manual intervention.

The new president comes upon us with greater challenges than any previous president had probably been faced with. He has won on the promise of ridding the ship of state of corrupt and tired and torn rafters.

Many of us in media, cynical, skeptical, tired of promises that should never have been spoken, are now also looking up to the new leader with hope that indeed, he just can lead us to the promised land -— where there is equality, justice, peace, where the number of poor people is reduced, where realities are recognized as truth, rather than religious myths, where women and men can choose the size of their families and have access to reproductive health services according to their conscience, and not because the bishops say it is a sin to do that.

We, whose candidates we thought might have been the better president, are being asked to help the candidate voted by majority of voters, to succeed. We are now called to help him in the re-building of the nation, not bring him down even as he starts his task of reconstruction.

And we ask the men and women he picks for cabinet positions to work for a united people, not to be vindictive, not to be furious, but willing to reconcile opposing forces.

And so, the son of the late President Corazon Aquino and the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., is now the new president.

Yes, the son also rises.

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On another front, the first Muslim mosque in Tawi-Tawi in Southern Philippines was built in 1380, or 141 years before the arrival in the Philippines of the first Spanish colonizers led by Ferdinand Magellan. Time and the elements slowly saw the mosque become a forlorn structure, but prayerful Moslems continued to worship in it, and speak of its historical value. Recently, or seven centuries later, the mosque was rebuilt — through the initiative of French business leader Louis-Paul Heussaff and former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.

French Ambassador Borja de Mozota and Representative de Venecia announced that the “modest Mosque project symbolizes Christian-Muslim solidarity in a strategic isle of the Sulu Sea where Islam began” in the Philippines.

Ambassador Mozota and Representative de Venecia were recently reelected co-presidents by the prestigious French Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit Association.

In addition to Mozota and de Venecia, the French Legion of Honor and Order of Merit, which is the French government’s highest award, has been conferred on vice-president Heussaff and Philippe Gauthier; deputy secretary-general Grace Glory Go; treasurer Roberto de Ocampo; deputy treasurer Aurelio Montinola III; legal counsel Noel Laman; corporate secretary George-Gascon Feydean, and special assistant Gretchen Wilwayco. The awards were initiated by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

 The Association designated Heussaff to coordinate the mosque’s rehabilitation with the National Historical Institute’s former executive director Ludovico Badoy, the Makdum Mosque Foundation under its president M.A. Bayo, Gov. Sadikul Sahali, Representative Nur Jaafar, and other Muslim leaders during a multi-sector meeting in Manila.

The simple but historic project was begun last year by former French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel, and by de Venecia, who introduced the Interfaith and Christian-Muslim dialogue which was approved by the United Nations. De Venecia said interfaith dialogue has become a feature of the foreign policy of most nations “to reduce politico-religious tensions and conflicts in various parts of the world and to help ward off the so-called ‘clash of civilizations.”

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Reports have it that some people have been scrambling for Cabinet positions — to the point of irking the incoming Chief Executive. Hence, it’s amusing — watching television celebrity Boy Abunda declining the post of tourism secretary reportedly offered to him. Boy was visibly irked by some critics’ pointing out that he is not fit for the job, that he is “just an entertainer.” Boy replied to his critics, saying that he is no mere show biz entertainer, that he is, in fact, more than just an entertainer. Boy, is, in fact, a celebrated entertainer, drawing only the bright and controversial guests to his show and earning revenue for his channel — something his counterparts are not able to do.

Some celebrated and respectable people have come to his rescue, saying good things about the beleaguered broadcast journalist. Among them is Helena Z. Benitez, board chairman of Philippine Women’s University.

A press statement from the PWU media room says Dr. Benitez knows Boy personally. He has a bachelor of arts, major in communication arts, from PWU. He earned the degree under the CHED ETEEAP program, or expanded Tertiary Education equivalency and Accreditation program. According to Dr. Benitez, under this program, college credits Boy earned from the Ateneo de Manila, were evaluated, as well as the quality of his work experience and achievements in mass communication, and required him to take enrichment courses to qualify him for the degree under the rules and requirements of the Commission on Higher Education. “He more than fulfilled the requirements and specifications of the program and was thus awarded the degree.”

Not content with earning his undergraduate degree, he has gone on to pursue post-graduate studies. He has earned a certificate from a seminar course in international relations and diplomacy from the PWU HZB School of International Relations and Diplomacy. He is currently working on his master of arts in communication. “These are serious courses of study and his being a media personality does not give Mr. Abunda any preferential status. He has to earn his grades. He has to take his studies seriously. And he does. Perhaps more seriously than his peers because he well realizes that being in show business, some quarters may be skeptical of both his motivation and his ability.”

“People might tend to dismiss his ideas and work achievements lightly by virtue of his being a show business personality,” says Dr. Benitez. “They would be mistaken.”

“Perhaps an indication of the kind of insight and appreciation that Mr. Abunda has about our society and its values is his declining to accept the position he is said to be being groomed for,” says Dr. Benitez. “By any standard, he is more than qualified. But, sensitive and sensible as he is, he may have realized that some people might raise a ruckus over the matter. He, therefore, wisely decided to decline. In declining, Mr. Abunda may have realized that incoming President Benigno Aquino III has more important issues and problems to attend to. The President-elect’s energies should be devoted to these; not to defending Mr. Abunda’s proposed appointment to the cabinet.”

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