Noynoy used up two hours and 10 minutes and some 17,000 words to deliver his SONA. The remaining 999,999,999 Filipinos can deliver the same in one second flat, using just a single word. The beauty of using a single word is that, almost like silence, it is more honest. When a person needs two hours and 17,000 words to describe what the rest of us can see at a glance, you have to suspect he is up to something.
I remember what the character of Jack Nicholson said in a moment of desperation and anxiety in As Good As It Gets: "Here I am, drowning, and there you are, describing the water." In other words, Noynoy could have gone on for another two hours and an additional 17,000 words and still not make a difference. When you lay on the icing too thick, you destroy the essence of the cake.
I was asked why I cannot seem to give Noynoy a break. One reason, I cannot make public. The other, let me just put it this way -- at one time in our lives, you, me, as well as most everyone else, we get offers and invitations that may seem very tempting but, on better judgment, are just a little too way beyond our levels of competence.
And so we end up politely declining these offers and invitations, out of respect for our own dignity and self-worth. We do not want to end up making fools of ourselves and, more importantly, we do not wish to raise false hopes and engender failed expectations. Seizing opportunities, after all, is not a blind swing of a stick like in that Filipino game of Hampas Palayok.
When Noynoy was asked to run in 2010, he himself knew he did not have what it takes to be president. Oh yes, he can easily meet the constitutional requirements but you and I know that is just to give life to democracy on paper. To be a real president, especially to be president of a country with so many problems that require real expertise to solve, you need to be someone so much more than just a natural born citizen, of legal age, and able to read and write.
Noynoy may not be in the same league as the other illustrious leaders of a generation past who could have made great presidents, including his very own father Ninoy, but I am sure he had enough of his wits about him to know, based on what he knows of his own self, whether he had what it takes to be president. And clearly, for somebody who only got to be elected because of his name, he should have known he could not hack it.
And yet, because he believed the sweet nothings people whispered in his ear, people with agendas closely woven into the prospects of a Noynoy presidency, he capitulated, to the eternal woe of the country. And that is why I cannot forgive Noynoy for not saying No. By saying yes to those who only have their own selfish interests in mind, he betrayed the interests of an entire nation suddenly deprived of a chance to be led by a truly qualified leader.
The nation was forced to cast their lot with a man who cannot even be true to his own self. But even worse than failing to find the true measure of his own self worth, Noynoy allowed himself to become the poster boy of a grand charade to fool the people. He was manipulated to become the mouthpiece for what was to become one of the most effective sloganeering gimmicks of all time.
"Daang Matuwid. Walang Mahirap Kung Walang Kurap." These are all catchy phrases that are easy to sell because they get to the very heart of a malaise that has long afflicted the people. Coming on the heels of a Captain Hook, it was easy to embrace Tinkerbell, or whoever is at the doorbell, for that matter. If you have been to the toilet five times, anyone who claims to have a cure for LBM is an angel.
Except that, because the corruption we have always known is the corruption that involves money and the theft of it, we cannot distinguish if a corruption variant also steals away our hearts as well. And that is precisely what happened. Noynoy robbed us blind of our capacity to trust. We reposed our trust in his slogans and missed out in the shellgame.
A fight against corruption can never be a legitimate fight if you only run after your corrupt enemies but protect and even praise your corrupt friends. Again, corruption is not just about stealing money. It is about dishonesty. When you publicly thank your yaya in your SONA, it may look and sound pretty. But true gratitude does not have to have witnesses. Noynoy could just have quietly showered his yaya with gifts. Or even just prayed for her. But he had to have it like DONATED BY.