It's easy to be green

Let’s briefly review our own history. About 26 years ago, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was shot on the tarmac shortly after he returned to the Philippines. To me that was the most brutal of crimes. He was shot in cold blood in the middle of the day. Who ordered the crime? Was it Marcos? That was what many people suspected. Today we only know that Ninoy’s assassination was one of the worst crimes in our history. He was innocent. He was also very intelligent, smart enough to be out country’s next president. Instead he was shot dead.

In the upsweep of emotions that followed we elected his wife, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, as president. That made a lot of sense. We were then controlled by a dictator. Who else could dislodge him but the brave stoic widow of a man people claimed he had ordered shot? She became president and was ushered into office with so much hope for change, the end of corruption, the beginning of a new, fresh, clean Philippines. 

Then the disappointment began and steadily grew. In the end she was a president who told us to pray for the solution of all our problems. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against prayers but I expected more from a president. I expected her to be like Maggie Thatcher and there she failed me miserably. 

What happened to us this far? First we had Ninoy, a man who was intelligent enough for the presidency but he was shot. So we got his wife, Cory, who was not as intelligent as he but she prayed. We had to take a step down, didn’t we? And then 25 years later she dies of natural causes and in the upsweep of our grief we nominate her son to run for president in spite of enough proof to show that on the intelligence level we are slipping further downhill. What is it about Filipinos? Are we clear on our emotions or are we always scrambling them like eggs, getting our grief mixed up with all sorts of things that don’t count? We need a highly intelligent president. We need a president with international presence. Why don’t we choose one?

Let’s briefly review my own history. I got married at 18, a very young shy bride I was. Then my husband used to like to go visit his best friend and his new wife quite often. Soon, we became a group of guy friends and a group of women — their wives — trying to become good friends, too. I remember very well meeting and making friends with Ditas Cojuangco Teodoro in that circle. She was pregnant then with her first and only child. She was the wife of Bert Teodoro who later on would be named SSS Administrator under Marcos. I even remember one night she was wearing a dark brown maternity dress and she looked really pretty in it. Then she had her baby and that took her out of the circle. Then I had my babies, too, and our lives branched in different directions but maybe about 20 years ago I ran into her at a party and we said hello and were good friends again after all these years.

Ditas is a wonderful woman, principled, quiet, a bit on the shy side then (as I was, too). Bert was the louder person in the couple. He was also highly principled. He managed to keep the SSS funds away from Imelda Marcos, where the GSIS had no such luck. This was a principled couple who raised one son, a tall, good-looking boy whom I met by accident some years ago. It was not much of a meeting. He was introduced to me and I asked him to give my love to his mother. I didn’t even suspect he would be running for president but nevertheless he impressed me.

Gibo is very intelligent, very principled, very committed and very charming. I like him and can see him talking to Barak Obama as an equal. He has an international personality. I cannot say that about the other candidates. He has the personality and the stature that this country needs. I will definitely vote for him. In fact for I don’t know how long I’ve been wearing three Gibo ballers on my wrist and anyone who dares try to give me a yellow one or an orange one gets my wrist stuck near his face. No, I say, I will die for Gibo.

I have heard all the criticism. There are those who don’t like him because he was initially endorsed by GMA. But he said, “When I am president, I will act as president.” And in the end she let go of him. Did he complain? No. There are those who say that they don’t like his wife, that she might be another Imelda Marcos in the making. What? You will not vote for a man simply because his wife might do something, might become like someone? Give them a chance. He is not Marcos. He is Gibo Teodoro, a different man more principled than any of them.

I will vote for him not because his mother is my friend but because I see in him traits we need in the presidency. I will vote for him because he is principled and knows exactly what he’s doing and makes good decisions. I will vote for him because he has international stature and can talk to the other heads of state on equal footing. He is a good representative of our country, which is something hard to say of other presidential aspirants.

So, if you haven’t made up your mind about the election, please listen to me and vote for Gibo. You won’t regret it. Nobody asked me to write this. I write it because I want to. I am voting for Gibo for president and Mar Roxas for vice president. You may say I’m voting for the good-looking ones.   That’s true but purely coincidental. I believe they have the ability to see our country through. This will be a team, the most competent one among the candidates. Okay, if you want to vote for Edu, go ahead. I’ll forgive you so long as you vote for Gibo for president. He is well worth it.

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