Searching for a savior

“Imagine if you were alone in the world, with nothing to hold you back or force you to do one thing or another.”

A friend forwards inspirational messages by email to me regularly and this one has been in my head for days. If we could do anything we want, what would we do? If we could pick any leader we want in 2010, who would we pick?

When Senator Mar Roxas announced that he was willing to give up his presidential dream and give way to Senator Noynoy Aquino, a lot of my contacts in Facebook wrote about a Noynoy-Mar tandem for next year. Most reactions were positive. I guess they felt that if there was a team that could beat the names bandied about as winnable, Noynoy and Mar would be it.

I can understand the excitement. I guess we’re still infected with Cory fever and memories of her continue to inspire us to believe that Noynoy can do what she did in 1986—unite everyone and put an end to an evil administration.

If only things were as simple as that and that electing Noynoy would guarantee us the happily-ever-after ending that we hoped for in 1986 but did not get. While it would be nice to feel warm, fuzzy, and sentimental, we really should be asking him questions we would ask other presidential hopefuls in the event that he announces that he is running for president. That his parents are people we consider heroes does not mean that we should not care what his stand is on issues we consider important.

I grew up knowing only one party—KBL and later, local ones like Panaghiusa. In college, I was alarmed by Joe de Venecia’s “rainbow coalition” of balimbings and political opportunists that I was so afraid he’s win as president in the 1998 election. Throughout the years, political parties were formed, merged, renamed, and dissolved. I’ve never really seen a difference in the principles they stood for. The only common principle is to stay in power.

I’ve heard people talk about the benefits of a two-party system and some people predict that a Nonynoy–Mar team would lead to a restoration of the glory days of the Liberal Party. I don’t even know what this means. Were members of the Liberal Party in the era before Martial Law was declared really different from the traditional politicians we complain about today?

My grandfather taught in a public elementary school in Boljoon for years. As a teacher, his duties included serving during elections. He has interesting stories to tell about them. One was of how supporters of the Nationalista and Liberal Parties would throw water at the ballots of the other party so that these would be considered spoiled. Growing up, I had the impression that neither party stood for the common good, only the strong desire to win at any cost. As an adult, I still have the same belief.

It is important for us to identify what we want for the Philippines and to go through our own process of discernment to identify who we should pick to be our leaders. While electing the right ones will not solve all our problems, it would certainly help if we spent less time angrily calling for the resignation of a president we discover to be unsuitable and more time doing things that give us joy.

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