Is P-Noy aspiring to be our Fuehrer?

Last Thursday, Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona spoke before an assembly of the PWJA (Philippine Women Judges Association). Being members of the judiciary, the forum offered the besieged CJ a sympathetic ear for pursuing his “defense by publicity” tactic.

CJ Corona said: “Recent events point out that the nation is now in great peril of teetering toward one-man rule, where executive action aims to shield, to shackle judicial independence undermining the rule of all and erode the systems of governance, particularly the principle and the mechanism of checks and balances.”

Of course, that was nothing new from the CJ’s many incredible assertions since his impeachment trial started. From Day 1, CJ Corona tagged President Noynoy Aquino (P-Noy) as lusting to dominate the judiciary in order to expand the president’s power base. The CJ camp must have thought that Filipino love for democracy will tilt public opinion in favor of CJ Corona if they can sell that “lust for power” concoction. However, all these selling of concocted falsehoods could only gain traction if there’s a base in the public mind for it to take off.

Last Friday, at the Ang Paglilitis (The Trial) program of PTV-4, a student asked former Senator Rene Saguisag what his reaction was to the CJ’s assertion of a “teetering toward one-man rule” in our country. They could not have asked a better resource person to render perspective and insight to that assertion of CJ Corona. Rene Saguisag was in the thick of the fight against the Marcos dictatorship, often undertaking the defense for many political prisoners.

Rene Saguisag immediately dismissed the CJ’s assertion as ridiculous and incredible. Knowing the Aquino family well, Saguisag stated in so many words that do we really think that the loyal son of a family that suffered so much under the Marcos dictatorship, contributed a lot to ousting that dictatorship and to the restoration of democracy — will just as easily aspire to become a dictator? The way Saguisag stated his answer to the student’s question, it was like saying: “Do we expect the Pope to shift from Roman Catholicism to Islam?”

Indeed, “teetering toward one-man rule” is a tough sell that even the most brilliant marketing communications experts here and abroad would not even venture to undertake. It’s like asking for a repackaging of Adolf Hitler as a humanitarian or Blessed John Paul II as a Vatican gigolo. There is absolutely nothing, except for the allegations of CJ Corona and other P-Noy haters, to support the idea that we are “teetering toward one-man rule” under our current president. Effective communications will build public perception from an accepted notion that already exists in the public mind, and not from the wide scale perception of P-Noy as a champion of democracy like his illustrious parents.

The Joseph Goebbels principle of “a lie told often enough becomes the truth” cannot happen today in societies where there is a wide scale spread of the information boom resulting from the advancements in information technology. To his diehard support base, CJ Corona might find a sympathetic ear but even that is doubted considering that these are members of the judiciary and are trained to see fact from fiction. They might listen to him. They might give him a standing ovation but he cannot ascertain if they all agree with what he is asserting.

Saguisag rounded up his commentary to the CJ’s “teetering toward one-man rule” assertion by reminding both the studio audience as well as television viewers that CJ Corona should be the last to complain about dictatorships or one-man rule because he served Marcos during the period of the dictatorship and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who would have aspired to be an autocrat, if only there were enough officers of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to support her and if the US had allowed her to do it.

Folks should be attentive to these devices being utilized by media spin masters to make white look black and good to look like evil. Filipinos are often exploited because of the big Information Gap in our country, greatly perpetuated by broadcast media that cannot escape from their addiction to showbiz and conflict generation. This does not even take into consideration that they could be media operators — prostitutes and mercenaries — who are caught most of the time espousing the causes of clients with big PR (Public Relations) budgets.

We desperately need a president with the political will to undertake badly needed reforms. When we have one like P-Noy — who demonstrated political will to promote the RH Bill, Sin Tax Reform, K+12 Education Program, zero tolerance for corruption, among others — the P-Noy haters immediately reposition these laudable endeavors to appear as bull headedness, closed mindedness to other ideas and a dictatorial attitude. Filipinos must learn to spot these spin devices or else we will find ourselves wasting our good presidents and even likely allow the rise of another evil autocrat.

Shakespeare: “Madness in great ones must never unwatched go.”    

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Chair Wrecker email and website: [email protected] and www.chairwrecker.com