Recalled but not able

We call them “Presidentiables”, men and women who for one reason or another are convinced or have been convinced that they have the potential to become President of the Philippines. But are they “President - able?”

Many Filipinos have recently been “force fed” by media, political strategists, and PR experts with many names, faces, and political gimmicks or tag lines or acronyms. The name of the game is brainwash by repetitions of radio commercials, photo press releases and newspaper advertisements. The frequency of all these messaging has been so much that one gets the impression that the election campaign has officially began.

The top three “brainwash materials” are those carrying the names of Vice President Noli De Castro, Sen. Manny Villar and Sen. Mar Roxas. Of the three, De Castro gets away with murder because he is officially the boss for housing and urban development.

Manny Villar on the other hand has managed to morph from his culturally correct “Sipag at Tiyaga” to his “pilit” or forced image of Champion of the OFW. Perhaps the good Senator should ask around because his latest radio ad with the lines “Lumuwa ang buwa ko” just by the mere sound has become off putting at the breakfast table. It may be innocent or real but it certainly is not palatable to hear. 

Mar Roxas who once had a sterling ability to press the right buttons during his stint as Secretary of Trade and Industry is now pitifully cast as a fighter for the poor instead of a competent executive and public servant. His padyak and ipaglalaban ko kayo may be a message to the populous poor, but it has no doubt backfired and given his image a kick on the backside. 

As painful as it is for me to write since they are friends, it needs to be pointed out that if people can’t remember your name or what your track record is, then attempting to enter the contest is a foul they call “forcing through”.

Secretary Gilbert Teodoro is a nice and decent guy. He is a dedicated “student” of Law and represents the good name of his late father Bert Teodoro who was instrumental in building up the Social Security System. But if you have to literally spell out TEODORO for purposes of name recall, isn’t it obvious that OBAMA you are not?

On the other hand, our “Sinta” Loren seems to have changed horses in the middle of the stream. People are still wondering how she became the Champion of the farmers, when she has consistently promoted the cause of the “environmentalists”?   

The tragedy in this area is that most of the “Presidentiables” have also been brainwashed into thinking and believing that the Masa or masses of ordinary people are stupid or can’t appreciate executive competency or “complex concepts” such as mission-vision or track record.

Americans are no more complex or sophisticated than Filipinos. They just sound like it because of the English. But at the end of the line we share common traits such as a desire to be productive, to be protected, respected and inspired. Portraying an unnatural role is simply seen as false or stupid. 

In truth, even the battle for the hearts and minds of the “masa” is just another form of class elitism or discrimination. In a generation of OFWs who have experienced “a whole new world” and a time when electronic communication has done more to uplift the culture and knowledge of those we call the poor, those running the campaigns are simply too lazy to translate to the masa what executive competency and political will is all about.  

What we are experiencing at the hands of the mercenary politicians is not an unofficial election campaign. It is a campaign for name recall. It is a campaign not to get elected as President but a campaign in order to get their names in the top 5 or top 10 lists of names that people can think of when they respond to the half a dozen surveys being conducted by private companies or political parties.

This current “campaign” is the necessary first step of manufacturing a “Presidentiable”. When the political parties or groups set out to choose a front runner, they will do so on the basis of name recall, ability to compromise, and if he has several hundred millions to fund his campaign as well as give some pocket money to other party members!

It does not matter to the particular “Presidentiable” if the message he carries is irrelevant, disconnected or deceitful or totally nowhere in their track record as long as the target audience will be the largest population and most probably be the respondents of future surveys. It is about who people will remember, it is about establishing name recall and has nothing to do with their abilities, achievements and being President-able. 

 In effect we are in the political Round 1 for the Presidency. Round 2 will be about the results of several surveys and re-surveys. Round 3 will be the nomination process. Round 4 will be the political horse trading where positions will be traded, bartered or sold so some people can slide down from Presidentiable to Vice-Presidency, go home with at least a P100 million jackpot prize and an all expense paid campaign to any destination they choose, the Vice-Presidency, the Senate, a Cabinet Secretary position or simply invest it in another mansion or a casino.

If some of the current crop simply focused on being professionals with integrity and decency, then I would dare say that we could find one or two real President-able candidates. Unfortunately they want to be clowns in the circus followed by the elephants who don’t realize that the chains, the whips and the stupidity could hardly stop the rampaging behemoth once it gets fed up being used for amusement and for profit and worse, being fed peanuts!