For survival, I guess, she got to be one of the ‘Persons of the Year’

Almost unnoticed, owing to the holiday excitement in which reading gets the lowest priority, La Gloria got to be – better believe it – one of TIME Magazine’s "Persons of the Year." This is the December 26, 2005 to January 2, 2006 issue.

Of course, "The Good Samaritans" – Bill Gates, wife Melinda Gates and Rock Star Bono (for "harnessing his glamour and political savvy" to speak for the "developing world") – were the cover photo’s Top Three. The magazine gave the multi-billionaire Gates’ top billing for "using their power to save the global poor", but okay, even Uncle Scrooge got generous in the end to buy the fattest turkey for his overworked, underpaid Clerk Bob Crachitt and save poor Tiny Tim.

GMA managed to sneak into Number 74 slot in the listing of People Who Mattered, 2005.

The lineup was led by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, of course, next Condoleeza Rice who, TIME acidly said, is "far more popular than the boss." By gosh, Condi must have charmed the whiskers off the magazine’s editors and board of judges – including my old friend, I’m sure, Norman Pearlstine who’s top Editor-in-Chief of all the TIME publications – we used to be together in Hong Kong, then New York City during his Wall Street Journal days. (He waffled, alas, on the "spy leak" controversy, but that’s another story).

Oh well, Pope Benedict XVI, Japan’s Koizumi (number 66) and others came in far ahead of La Presidenta, but she came next to Britain’s Tony Blair, and outpointed Darth Vader of Star Wars from the Dark Side of the Force.

For Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, TIME had a good word indeed, given its normally sarcastic bent. The magazine stated, "The Philippine President is a survivor, riding out a bruising battle to impeach her for alleged vote rigging, a financial scandal that embroiled her husband and son, rumors of a potential coup, and widespread gloom over the country’s seemingly intractable problems with corruption and poverty. She says it’s her faith in God that sustains her."

God had no comment.

* * *

Beginning in January 2006, GMA will have been six years in office.

The persistent buzz is that there will be a Cabinet revamp – but don’t hold your breath. "Revamp" is too strong a term for the kind of Musical Chairs and role-switching which has passed in the past for "reform" or "revamp" in the Arroyo Administration.

As for that ridiculous proposal submitted by the Constitutional Commission that the 2007 elections be cancelled on the Road to a Parliamentary form of government or cha-cha change, it was a no-brainer. The ConCom and its head, Joe Abueva, ought never to have even considered such a self-defeating idea. The truth is that the bunch pushing for Constitutional change as our way to salvation miss the point entirely. You don’t save a nation by changing its organic law – you save it by changing the mores, morals, and enhancing the sense of values of the people.

The Ten Commandments are always a good start, but remember, when the Prophet Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the tablets of the Commandments he had received from God, he found his Chosen People, the Israelites, worshipping the Golden Calf. The continuing worship of the Golden Calf is what ails our leadership today.

When all is said and done, what good is a new form of elective government until and unless we reform the corrupt Commission on Elections – which will count the ballots in any election or referendum? It’s all "sound and fury," as the old expression goes, "signifying nothing."

The very idea of cancelling the 2007 elections, from the standpoint of public acceptance, was doomed from the start. The only ones enthusiastic about such a demented notion were the already elected officials and those already entrenched in places of political power, for this move would have extended their terms without their having had to campaign – and spend. It’s obvious the rest of the citizenry would have rejected it.

The most practical reason an election must never be cancelled or called off is that the people both want and enjoy every election.

For the folk in the countryside, especially the farmers and peasants, it’s the biggest break in the monotony of their lives, and renews their flagging sense of self-importance. Imagine all the big shots arriving in the poblacion, and even in their far-flung barangays and barrios, for once, dispensing goodies, t-shirts, cash, etc., making promises, and with some celebrities, singers, stars, starlets or a show biz idol in tow. Singing, dancing, and gift-giving, etc.: That’s "democracy" in action!

The same goes for the kapus-palad, everywhere, the urban poor and the proletariat, the squatters, and the men and women in the street. Sus, money flows and even manages to seep down to the bottom of the pyramid. It’s a re-distribution of wealth, even in a modest manner. It’s vaudeville and fiesta.

Cancel an election? Perish the thought!

What we must concentrate on, by the way, is not merely ridding the Comelec of crooks and dagdag-bawas artists, but finally automating the vote-counting and tabulation by acquiring credible machines. The Comelec officers and commissioners who bought that tainted shipment of automatic counting machines, and other junk, must be prosecuted, brought to book and punished. This should not deter us from procuring good machines – it is not a matter of choice, this is a must. The old method of manual count is the cause of chronic cheating and continues to make us the laughing stock of the world.

I’m not one to mince words for the sake of political politeness, but the manual count makes the Philippines appear more primitive than the Sub-Sahara and Darkest Africa. (In some African nations, of course, like we used to be, you know who won even before the votes are cast – while at least one African state now beats us in electoral efficiency.)

Finally, we must educate our people. Only then will every citizen know that his or her ballot counts. Sad to say, the GMA Administration seems to give lower priority for education than any previous Administration, inexplicably since La Gloria herself is well educated, as was her mother, and her dad, the late Cong Dadong – the Poor Boy from Lubao – who fought his way to two Ph.D.s in law and economics.

Only education from our children to our adults will make our people free.