Poe and Chiz may not be full of grace, afterall
The drumbeaters for the Poe-Escudero tandem seem to be trying to romanticize Grace and Chiz as a magic combination of sweet and sour or coffee and milk. They claim that this is the team that will bring about a government with a heart. They wear white shirts supposedly to symbolize purity. Grace, in her proclamation in UP, distanced herself from traditional politician. Chiz, in his own declaration in Club Filipino, tried to project a fresh and clean image. In short, they are trying to tell us that they are the good guys in the 2016 presidential derby.
Well, of course, those symbolisms are good copies in the art of advertisement and marketing. They seem to be really good at packaging themselves and marketing their team to the ever impressionable Filipino electorate. They are savvy in matters of style and projections. But on matters of substance, there is not much positive really that can be drawn from these two wanna-bes. And above all, there are a lot of issues that can make these candidates extremely vulnerable. Their opponents have prepared mountains of them. They better be prepared with allegations related to their qualifications and their character.
First of all, on performance. What have Grace and Chiz done in the Senate, aside from filibustering and trying to play up to the gallery in many Senate investigations supposedly in aid of legislation. But the journal of the Senate would bear us out that these two have not been achieving much in the field of legislation, which is really the main task and responsibility of all legislators. Senator Trillanes filed the most number of bills and has secured the enactment of the most number of laws. Neither Grace nor Chiz could equal, much less surpass, the performance of Trillanes.
Second, on their personal lives in relation to their public image. Grace Poe, at the age of 33, was reported to have renounced Philippine citizenship and became a US citizen. Albeit she turned around later and reverted to Filipino citizenship, the fact remains that there were years that Grace Poe was not loyal to his country of birth. And until now, her husband and all children allegedly remain US citizens and also Filipino citizens. And so, should we vote for this kind of candidate? Should we elect someone who abandoned his citizenship once and retrieved it later when she found an opportunity to benefit from the shadow of his adoptive father, the movie hero FPJ?
Third, Chiz should also explain to us how he and his first wife have parted ways. He should tell us about his alleged drinking and other behavioral patterns, and enlighten the voters why the parents of Heart Evangelista, his current wife, did not attend their grand wedding. Public figures cannot invoke their right to privacy. The people have the right to know what kind of characters they are going to elect to public offices. If he has what it takes, then let him show the evidence. Chiz, as he is now, has had no track record as a hard-working lawmaker. There is no landmark legislation to his name. He is only good in filibustering and projecting on TV. He has not shown any substance.
Fourth, these two rather young and untested leaders who want to lead us in the next six years should lay down their platform of government. We are not contented with their attacks against Roxas and Binay. We, the conscientious voters, must insist that Grace and Chiz are not merely better but must not be worse than Mar and Jojo. What are their plans on national security, foreign affairs, the economy, the crime situation, the Muslim secessionist movement, and the insurgency program? What can they do on the massive unemployment and the worsening poverty problem? What records in the Senate prove their patterns of advocacies? None at all.
The time has come for us to demand for substance beyond the frills and the rah-rahs of the drumbeaters. Grace and Chiz must prove that they have substance that can really be of help to us. Otherwise, they are nothing but trying hard, second rate copy cats, to borrow the hackneyed lines of Cherry Gil. They have to match their grandiose ambitions with the substantial contents of their package of concrete plans and programs. Their dreams are not enough. They have to show us that they have solutions to all the woes the nation is burdened with today. What matters most is what they can really do should the people be lured into another political gamble.
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