E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
My Man of the Year 2006
Sunday, 01 07, 2007
2006 was the year of the underdog, when every assault made by the top dogs on the Constitution was successfully fended off by the collective efforts of those who still have decency in their hearts, intelligence in their minds, and strength of will and body to repulse the periodic show of arrogance and abuse. Albeit a mongrelized breed of dissenters — having evolved out of the melding of true-blue oppositionists and a great number of disillusioned adherents of the current occupant of Malacañang — the underdog acquired a bark that promised to be as fearful as its bite.
For too long, the opposition existed only as an amorphous entity, living in a bewildered political milieu, unaware of how to harness its strengths, unsure of which road to take or the direction it really wanted to go. There had been numerous voices of anger, but few voices of vision; there had been a whirl of feverish activity, but little harmony of purposeful thought, such that the often ungoverned passions of its members brought them only a sinking feeling that the small woman in Malacañang was too formidable and crafty for an adversary.
It was a woman, just as Corazon Aquino had been two decades ago, who, by her acts of silent heroism, instructed the members of the opposition of the duty to find themselves.
First, she showed a gumption that went beyond the extraordinary when she took on Malacañang for its cheating, lying and stealing ways. She went on in her own quiet resolute way, without the theatrics of those who are too vividly aware of an audience in their supposedly self-imposed crusade. She spoke in soft, gentle tones while others were shouting themselves hoarse in condemning the oppression and injustice around them.
Second, she proved equal to the task of defining an alternative to the current government, even as she was already genuinely committed to the cause of the opposition.
Third, she was faithful in her desire for change in the government, never wavering for once in that crusade. She got the country to look beyond the glitter, beyond the grandstanding, to stare at the reality, the hard substance of things in a corrupt environment. And she did it, not so much with speeches that brought people to their feet as with action that brought people to their senses.
If only for these reasons, our choice for the Man of the Year 2006 is a woman: Loren Legarda.
Loren used the protest she lodged with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to highlight the massive fraud in the 2004 elections where, had it not been for the massive cheating in Iloilo, the mass-produced election returns in Brookside, the ballot box substitution at the Batasan, et cetera, she should by now be the vice president.
As each hearing before the PET unraveled the extent of the fraud, popular admiration for Loren rose even more, an expression of the people’s unqualified recognition of her resemblance to their cheated selves.
We saw how Loren took pains in the crusade against bad governance. She wrote about the need for good government. We have seen how often politicians of little minds have shrunk from the crusade against bad government; but Loren, whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves her comportment, has proved equal to the task of defining an alternative to a government that has gone evil and berserk. Two years after the elections where she and the late Fernando Poe Jr. were cheated, Loren has not abandoned at all her advocacies, spurning all enticements for her to abandon her protest and cast her lot with Malacañang. Instead, Loren spread throughout the country the platform of governance she espoused during the campaign, thereby keeping alive the dream of the millions who voted for her and FPJ.
And the people kept their faith in Loren, and continue to believe in her. The surveys show her consistently as the most credible, most consistent, most believable voice of the people in these hard and perilous times.
Now, Loren is at a critical juncture. From where she stands, she has to decide which bridge to cross and which to burn.
On one end lies the vice presidency that is a certainty for her, once the proceedings at the PET are concluded. Given the weight of evidence of fraud already presented, Loren’s proclamation as the rightful victor in the 2004 elections is never in doubt. But that sweet vindication could come very much later than sooner; even probably not a day earlier than the elections in 2010.
The other bridge leads her back once more to the Senate, the venue of her many victories for the Filipino people, where she did the millions who voted for her in 1998 proud.
If she opts to be a senator again, she will thereby abandon her quest for the vice presidency. That’s what the law says.
2007 is the year Loren will have to make a wise choice between waiting to be proclaimed vice president and becoming a senator. Whatever it is, Loren will be man enough to make the wise choice, as she has always done in the past.
A second after the stolen dawn proclamation of the “winners” in the 2004 elections, Loren was heard to say with the firm conviction of a man with a lot of fight left in his heart: “I won, but it was stolen from me! Let’s get started!”
Loren knows whereof she speaks. 2004, 2005 and 2006 were fighting years for a man like Loren.
2007 will be another fighting year, until Loren Legarda, our man, emerges the victor.
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