Binay is no Obama

Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay finally put to rest all speculations about his future political plans. Addressing supporters during his 66th birthday he celebrated recently, Binay said he was making a run for the presidency in 2010.

The best reaction to that announcement was provided by the irrepressible senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, who burst into genuine laughter. I don't know if Santiago heard that Binay likened himself to Barack Obama. If she did, she would have died laughing.

Binay may be a leading light of the opposition but that does not assure the country that he will make a good leader or that he can be the light that shines on the path this nation will have to take over the next six years in the succeeding presidency.

In another time, it would have been both a crown of honor and a badge of respectability to be with the opposition. The company was illustrious -- Ninoy Aquino, Serging Osmeña, Jovito Salonga, Gerry Roxas, Jose Diokno. Now you have the likes of Joseph Estrada and Binay.

Everybody knows about Estrada. Even before he became president, there was no secret about his life. That Filipinos still opted to overwhelmingly make him their president, warts and all, they were to regret not very long after.

Now Binay has made himself available for the same position. And while he may not be as popular as Estrada, he is not exactly a push-over, thanks to the very person he wants to replace, President Arroyo, who has become one of the most unpopular presidents we ever had.

Perhaps this is the reason why Binay had the temerity to liken himself to Obama. The huge unpopularity of George W. Bush aided Obama in no small measure in clinching victory at the expense of Bush's fellow Republican John McCain.

Binay can employ Arroyo-bashing as a campaign platform. But as to how effective a platform it will be to launch his candidacy remains to be seen. After all, his likening himself to Obama ends abruptly with the similarities between Bush and Arroyo in unpopularity.

Beyond the unpopularity of Bush, Obama had more to offer the American people than Binay could ever hope to muster beyond the unpopularity of Arroyo. Binay is simply no Obama. Nothing can be more apparent even just by putting them side by side.

Even without the help of an unflattering juxtaposition with Obama, Binay will still come up short in the true measure required of such an important, and crucial at this time, position as being the president of a struggling country.

For one, as the chief executor of the laws of the land, the president of a nation must have a very healthy respect for the law and lawful orders. He cannot and must not take the law into his own hands.

As a lawyer, Binay knows there are legal processes he must submit to, even if he personally does not like to, or feels that, as a high official, it is an affront to his high office to do so.

Not long ago, Binay was the subject of a lawful order. Instead he created a shameful spectacle for all the world to see on live television. He barricaded himself in fortress City Hall surrounded by nincompoops ready to give up their meaningless lives meaninglessly for him.

Another time, Binay did submit to a lawful order. But he paid the mandated fine contemptuously in five-centavo coins placed inside a 10-gallon water jug. This is not the kind of temperament we want to see in a leader. Indeed, this is not the kind of leader we need.