The Dark Horse of May

I don’t give a mother about the elections. The political arena for me is like a petri dish. You have thousands of dirty microbes, all from the same spineless strain of DNA, replicating among themselves at an exponential rate, with a single goal of reaching the millions. And in some ambitious cases, the billions.

I would rather work on my own, start the sustainable projects I want, work with the brilliant people who inspire me, because any attempt to put faith in the government will only break your heart.

But I heard this one man speak. He presented well-thought-out solutions, each a refreshing take on society’s age-old problems. I am wary of a man with a gift for rhetoric, especially if it’s in a deadpan manner. But can he be the real thing?

I am not here to talk about how qualified this guy is. How he graduated top of his class in UP Law, topped at the bar exams in 1989, went to Harvard Law for his master’s, then went into Congress to file over 106 bills, with six of them passing into law. Of course, I had to include these in this article, because they are impeccable credentials, but it’s also to make it clear that it won’t be the focus.

The focus is presidential candidate number 8, Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr.

Last May 2, Pastor Quiboloy of Davao, founder of the six-million-strong Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious sect, gave Gibo his endorsement. Even Ruffa Gutierrez, after laughing at her mother four months ago for choosing Gibo, has also recently come out. People are starting to believe, but why only now?

The man had two major things going against him. One, Gibo is under the administration’s party, hence the automatic thinking that he is the lapdog of the most unpopular president in Philippine history. It’s what they call PGMA’s “kiss of death.”

Second, he was — plain and simple — unlucky. The worst flooding in the history of the Philippines happened under his watch, causing many to blame him for not building the Great Ark fast enough. The worst massacre of journalists in the world, with our country surpassing Iraq as a danger zone for journalists, also happened under his watch. How did he respond to these?

When I saw him talk, when I read about his platforms and convictions, my instincts started kicking in, and I immediately recognized him: this man is not the dog of anybody.

Gibo is a leader who puts complete trust in the people. He understands that for people to follow you, for you to be an effective leader, you have to put faith in them first, that people are intelligent enough to distinguish that Gibo is not PGMA. He believes in your ability to think for yourself.

In the middle of his presidential crusade, two major catastrophes emerged to test his character. He did his work quietly, absorbed all the criticism, refrained from blaming anyone, not even inviting a media circus upon himself when he made a swift and decisive response on the Ampatuans.

 Gibo is a leader who believes in teamwork. Rather than passing the blame, or retaliating to the demolition jobs directed at him, he absorbs all of the negativity in order to keep his regiments intact. To achieve unity, one must create a culture of tolerance and self-humility. And he shows this through leading by example.

Telling enough, the most surprising events unfolded. A whispering campaign ensued saying the real administration lapdog is our presidential real estate guru, with Gibo as the red herring of the equation. People started realizing that Ondoy was nobody’s fault, and he got a silent nod of approval for flying right away to Mindanao to make swift decisions.

Now, this unlikely candidate has been steadily redeeming himself despite great odds. From being a bottom-dweller, this lapdog/scapegoat/red herring has now emerged as a dark horse. What makes him tick?

The presidency is a-calling. In my experience, the moment you realize your calling is a very beautiful thing. Dormant faculties come alive, you see the world in a fearless light, and what springs forth is immeasurable strength. And this kind of strength can only come from pure intentions of serving the people, above everything else.

Grace Padaca and Ed Panlilio scored miraculous wins over political dynasties, with superhuman efforts by volunteers fueled by the honesty and integrity of their candidates. On a global scale, Barack Obama won decisively with a change campaign funded by the people themselves.

And what is this based on? The foundation is mutual trust. And unity for an achievable goal. This is the dawn of a thinking public capable of mature elections, and Gibo realizes that Filipinos are finally learning to work as one. We are finally starting to fight for change.

But he also realizes that the Philippines is an archipelago. In his interviews, you always hear him mention the word “synergy.” Synergy is defined as, “teamwork that will produce an overall better result than if each person was working toward the same goal individually.”

We are a culture too diverse for our own good. To top that, we are separated by islands, quite physically. You cannot micromanage every tiny island. It is simply impossible. So in order to unite a physically and culturally divided people, Gibo employs a somewhat 21st-century way of thinking.

There’s this company practice in Google called 20 Percent Time, where engineers can spend 20 percent of their time working on anything they want. A kind of autonomous environment is set, placing complete faith in the capabilities of their employees, which have yielded to half of their new products in a typical year, like Gmail, Orkut, Google News, etc.

Like with Mindanao, he realizes that he cannot end the conflict overnight. The best we can do is lay the groundwork for peace talks, while government serves as a guardian to make sure all weapons are withdrawn. A certain level of autonomy is needed to empower the people into resolving the conflict themselves.

Ihave a confession to make. It is my first time to register as a voter, because he made me want to believe again. After the bloody (not literally) elections, I believe Gibo is the only one with adequate diplomatic skills to unite everyone. And here is a firsthand account of how he can get the job done, in his own unassuming way:

The first time I met him was at a closed-door Economic Briefing in 2008. It was the peak of the recession, I was talking to a foreign investor because the company decided to lay off 10,000-plus employees. By the way, that was just one; the next guy wanted to pull out his investments and move to Vietnam and China.

Gibo just got off the plane, had the flu but made it to the meeting. By the end of the meeting, he did his rounds, talked to the industry’s main players (excellent macro-management skills) and sat with them. He managed to convince most if not all of these people to retain their investments. That’s 10,000 jobs retained, 10,000 lives, 10,000 families. Did you guys hear about this in the news? I doubt it.

I want a leader who respects the minds of our countrymen as the greatest natural resource, and that we are not bobo. A leader who’s not afraid to admit, “I don’t have the answer to Mindanao, but this is my solution for now.” A leader with a fully realized vision of a First World country, yet realistic enough to know that it cannot be achieved by 2016, and his temporary role is to merely lay down the blueprints for a tiger economy, our future as a great country.

But this leader has said that he will retire from public service at age 51. By the 2016 elections, he will be two months shy of 52. If Gibo doesn’t win, he can still be senator, get some major Republic Acts moving, and he will be our president in 2016, no doubt. But the challenge is...

Why not 2010?

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Read the better Gibo articles linked on my Twitter. You will vote for him. http://twitter.com/pingmedina.