Recently, I was asked by a friend about my candidate for president in the forthcoming election. My answer, I don't know yet. I told him though that two of the five aspirants seemed to weigh heavily on me. These were Mar Roxas and Grace Poe.
In response my friend argued against the wisdom of my choice by enumerating the shortcomings of these two candidates. Of Roxas he said something about the latter's "teka-teka" ways and lack of "push" when it comes to tasking. Of Poe his comment was a mere repeat of what has been the lady candidate's shortcoming – lack of bureaucratic experience.
My friend expected me to contradict his appraisal of the candidates, but I told him he could be right. Yet I went further by saying that these weaknesses even if true, are nothing compared to those of the other three presidentiables.
One of them, a former mayor has been found in a legislative inquiry to have allegedly enriched himself through questionable multi-billion construction projects. Another, also a former mayor, has been reported to have violated human rights through salvaging and summary executions of criminal elements, a claim he seems to have confirmed in thus campaign speeches when he said that if elected he would get rid of lawless groups and drug pushers within six months.
These two machos contrast starkly with the third candidate, a veteran lady legislator whose brilliance as a constitutionalist has no peer among her colleagues and whose sincerity as a public servant has never been compromised. Unfortunately, she is suspected of suffering from a life-threatening ailment, and this, plus a commonly shared perception of academic aloofness, has delimited her appeal to the electorate, including this writer.
Among the five presidentiables, Roxas without doubt, is the lesser evil, I explained to my friend. He is the "cleanest" too because he has not been suspected of stuffing his pocket of ill-gotten pesos despite the many positions he held in the government. Experience and transparency are the aces of Roxas in this contest. Experience has exposed him to the intricacies of democratic governance as well as to the nuances and temper of the governed. This will make him hew closely to what is proper and lawful. Transparency will make him a transformational leader whose obsession will likely be truth and integrity in public service.
Ok, said my friend. But why is he a cellar dweller in the poll surveys conducted on presidential aspirants? The answer is that surveys of this kind are never reliable. Even as an indicator of a trend a poll survey could be misleading because the results could be manipulated. If such surveys are reliable why not do away with elections and proclaim as president the survey topnotcher?
My friend is comfortable with my opinion that Roxas is the lesser evil among the candidates. But he said that Grace Poe also can be another lesser evil. Yes, I said, that's why she or Roxas is my possible choice, especially because the Supreme Court has just declared the former as qualified to run for president.
Such decision is actually a big boost for Poe because aside from legalizing her candidacy it implies a collective trust among the nine justices on her capacity, if elected, to lead this nation.