Hypocrisy worse than corruption

I think I have finally found the reason for this country's never-ending woes. And it is not corruption, as we have always believed for so long. No, let me rephrase that. Corruption is the cause of our never-ending woes but the main reason why we can never lick corruption is because of the hypocrisy that grips the nation.

When Noynoy Aquino ran for president in 2010, enough people fed up with corruption voted to make him a minority president (more people -- the majority -- had enough sense not to vote for an incompetent candidate but still lacked the sense to vote for a single rival bet, thus diluting the vote and making it useless).

On hindsight, that is where the hypocrisy first became apparent. Noynoy never had a claim to anything except to be the son of a popular president. But genes do not transmit character, which is acquired. If Cory Aquino was an honest leader, it does not follow that Noynoy will also be honest just by being her son.

Noynoy has to prove his honesty by action, not by genetic invocation. But where honesty is measured by action, say in the fight against corruption, Noynoy fails miserably as shown by his failure or refusal to go after those other than his political enemies.

Yet, despite this failure, halfway through his term, with no indication whatsoever that he can reverse the situation, Noynoy continues to claim immense popularity as shown by surveys, the methodology of which is suspect in light of the unassailable reality that he is, after all, a minority president.

Look, if far more people voted against Noynoy, as shown by the duly-certified and unquestioned results in the 2010 elections, how can the surveys show him to be immensely popular unless there is something wrong with the surveys themselves?

Such is the hypocrisy that while the rest of the world looks upon the Philippines as among the most corrupt countries in the world, some Filipinos would rather go on with the charade that it is enough to fight corruption by being on the side of someone who made honesty a campaign slogan.

Most of us are educated enough to have read somewhere about the exhortation to be wary of someone who says "trust me." Well, isn't that what Noynoy had been professing all along. Despite the lack of anything presidential, Noynoy still begged the nation to trust him. Sadly, enough of us did to make him president.

I still remember Noynoy pretending to solicit divine intervention by going into a retreat before making up his mind. If Noynoy had been a truly honest person, he would have known by himself that he did not have what it takes to lead a nation.

But Noynoy is not as honest as he would like the nation to believe. Despite knowing in the deepest recesses of his soul that he is not qualified to be president, he still acceded to the demand of the political opportunists who saw in the death of his mother the vehicle to ride on with Noynoy at the wheel.

So, if Noynoy cannot be honest to himself, how can people expect him to be honest to anyone else? Now you may ask why there were enough people who voted for him despite his apparent incompetence? The answer is simple -- hypocrisy.

I am not saying that those who voted for him are hypocrites. What I am saying is that, while many did genuinely believe in a fight against corruption, others merely needed an opportunity to feel good about themselves by joining an anti-corruption bandwagon.

And that is where half of the Noynoy vote was wrong. Because it takes more than a bandwagon to fight corruption. It takes a genuinely honest leadership to succeed in fighting a tough fight and Noynoy is simply not that kind of leader. He took many Filipinos for a ride.

Has Noynoy really ever embarked on a serious and honest fight against corruption? Oh, I am sure you will cite a few examples -- Gloria Arroyo is under arrest and Renato Corona has been removed. But what about the process in achieving these dubious "victories?" Where they made by honest means?

Those who claim these as victories are the biggest hypocrites, because in effect they are saying that it is perfectly all right to corrupt the process for as long as you get the crooks. By gum, corruption is not merely stealing. Any dictionary will tell you it is tainting, subverting, or making dirty.