DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
“Those whom the gods wish to destroy.....
Sunday, 02 21, 2010
.....they first make mad.”
That statement - attributed to Euripides (c. 480 BC) in reference to those who had become crazed by power - suspiciously applies to the present-day handlers of the presidential bid of Noynoy Aquino. The handlers have acted arrogantly with the thought that the presidency is theirs for the taking. They had better perish that thought by now.
In the afterglow of the death of Cory Aquino last year, all too suddenly Noynoy was thrust into the limelight, and the Liberal Party grabbed him as its standard bearer, over the well-prepared and definitely more qualified Mar Roxas. That was a decision made in a fit of madness.
Other seizures of madness followed.
Two weeks into the campaign, the presidential bid of Noynoy, by the own admission of its campaign manager, is clearly in disarray, a consequence of the fits of madness that have afflicted his campaign.
It was nonchalant madness for Noynoy to fail deflect the attacks against him as an unproductive member of the Congress of the Philippines. It is the height of arrogance to brush aside this claim. After all, The Record and the Journal of both Houses of the Congress of Philippines do not lie about a legislator’s performance, or absence thereof.
It was methodical madness for the LP to make a limp denial of the autism issue and to give one columnist hell because he had asked Noynoy if he felt alluded to - a very innocent question, indeed. The autism issue will not die with the kind of answer that the LP has given; it could engender far worse and more personal issues that could irreparably hurt Noynoy’s campaign.
It was incautious madness for Noynoy to fail to disabuse the public’s mind about the issue of his complicity in the embarassing dispute over Hacienda Luisita. Worse, even as he is in a position to do right by the failings of his relatives, he abstained from voting on the new agrarian law that now invalidates the oppressive stock distribution scheme that he and his relatives have perpetuated.
It was arrogant madness for Noynoy to refuse to answer a very valid question posed by one he considers a tailender in the presidential race. His adversaries in the presidential race, whether rating high or dwelling low in the surveys, have every right to ask legistimate questions. My barber Joe said: “Kulang sa pag-iisip, kaya kayabangan na lang ang isinumbat.”
It was presumptuous madness for Noynoy to expose his dictatorial streak when he threatened not to recognize anyone who accepts an appointment as chief justice extended by the incumbent president. Imagine the fallout that he got from this idiotic statement! Whoever gave Noynoy this advice deserves a drill on the head.
It was slovenly madness for Noynoy to fail to give a plausible answer to the accusation that, as a benefit of the SCTEX Scam, he raked in some P50 million that went into his campaign as congressman for Tarlac in 2004. The date on the check - April 26, 2004 - issued to “Hacienda Luisita, Inc.” is too proximate to the time when money should flow in the elections on May 10, 2004, when Noynoy’s candidacy hung on the balance against a very formidable opponent in Governor Victor Yap.
It is juvenile madness for Noynoy not to extricate himself from the skirts of his sisters, who continue to dominate his life and mind and heart. It is equally madness on his part not to dissociate himself from the corruption charges against his relatives who are poised to lord it over again under a Noynoy presidency. For valid reasons, you can declare your freedom from those who can possibly do you harm while you associate with them, can’t you?
It is infantile madness for Noynoy and his handlers to rely completely on the name of his parents, and even fail to make a name for himself. The time has come for Noynoy to stand on his own. Sadly, he forgot that elections progress in phases, yet he got stuck in the euphoria of August 2009, and never moved on.
It is insensitive madness for Noynoy to allow himself to be dominated by discordant voices within the LP, thereby exposing his lack of executive skills. Well, the LP is one organization that has no claim to consistency. The venerable Jovito Salonga - who with one determined voice would have forged the LP into one effective machine - has been sidelined by tyros in the party and countless petty tyrants, many of them responsbile for the rut the nation is in, having been parties to the stolen presidency of Gloria Arroyo in 2004.
The LP leadership is inept, embroiled in their own internecine political battles, too fat-headed and inexperienced to wage a presidential campaign, or much too engrossed in their arrogance to believe that they can win an election on the basis of contrived numbers in the surveys.
Who is in charge, really? Definitely not Noynoy, who has failed to show the voters he can really hack it as an executive. If he cannot even put order to his campaign, how can he even pretend that he will be able to govern a nation of 95 million?
Noynoy need not dwell on the name of his parents. He must now stand on his own, on his own merits, if any. He should take over the LP, if he has the guts to put the party tyros and the petty tyrants under his thumb. He should now define himself. He should not be mouthing the inanities fed to him by his advisers. [For instance, his spiel that he will not steal does not dispel the possibility that those involved in the 20-billion-peso Peace Bonds Scam, who are very prominent in the Noynoy campaign, will not steal billions again].
Indeed, Noynoy has a lot of catching up to do. But, first, he must liberate himself from those who have surrounded him with their arrogance. If he chooses to live with them, their mutual destruction will not be far behind.
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