Of tarpaulins and clowns

The topic that I write today is, to most people, drab and uninteresting and to few, especially those concerned, repulsive. I will therefore focus on the first group with an honest effort to enliven this article as to be readable.

I read from the Reader’s Digest that whenever the late US President John F. Kennedy would be asked to give an impromptu speech, he would rely, for his opening line, upon a Ramayana passage. He was often heard saying “There are three things that are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third”.

It’s likely that if Kennedy were alive today and asked, on an impromptu stage, to speak on the deluge of the tarpaulins of politicians expected to run for office in the presidential election more than 10 months from now, he would still quote Ramayana but he would highlight on human folly and not on laughter.

Consider these: 1.) A Bloomberg report said that the Philippine economy is a mess with the spectacular gains achieved by President “Noynoy” Aquino ground to negative digits in the Rodrigo Duterte administration; 2.) Another news item mentioned that our country is second to the lowest among all nations in the fight against COVID-19. This is chronicled by the “Palpak Duterte” hashtag from the inner sanctum of government bureaucracy. 3.) We are the most unsafe country for world tourists to visit. At the apex of this story of horrible criminal statistics is the threat of an impending case against our own president before the International Criminal Court.

In the midst of all these unflattering international perceptions of the Philippines, we are occupied with Sara Duterte, Bongbong Marcos, Bong Go, Trillanes, Poe, and few others talking about their future candidacies in the May 2022 elections instead of discussing how we can achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 or how we can lift our economy from its terrible state. Watch television, listen to the radio, read the papers, talk to the barbers, converse with taxi drivers and you will find out that that these politicians, to our applause, indulge in nothing else but their selfish interests. This is what Kennedy might have called human folly.

This folly of national politicians has infected local personalities. Just imagine that they post incredible numbers of expensive tarpaulins announcing the need for people to get vaccinated but covertly advertising their names and faces. Others take advantage of people’s hunger by supposedly undertaking feeding programs, but unabashedly talk about their political intentions instead of the rationale for the feeding.

Well, these gimmicks of politicians, whether folly or not, are with us now in blinding numbers. They have the wherewithal to back up their dizzying activities. However, it’s their right to do whatever tricks they think promote their names. Let them do what they like. On our part, we have to remember the subliminal message of David Halberstam’s book “The Best and the Brightest”. The people to choose in May 2022 are those with the following attributes. First, they must have more than basic competence. The profundity of their knowledge is measured by their academic records. Wernher von Braun could not have put Neil Armstrong on the moon if his mind was as mediocre as Bong Go’s. Second, they must have a heart for public service which their past pronouncements reveal. Where is the heart of the Marcoses that we kicked out of Malacañang in 1986? And third their moral standards as demonstrated by their actions. It’s bad enough to be maritally unfaithful, it’s worse to parade unwed partners to the world.

We have to discern that political campaigns of academic clowns fueled by millions of pesos will surely lead our country to perdition.