Why we don’t vote for pilots

Over the past few weeks, 23 former high-ranking officials, among them 14 Ramos administration Cabinet secretaries, declared their support for the presidential bid of Vice President Leni Robredo. A few days ago, almost 100 former officials during the P-Noy administration, including 20 retired ambassadors, made the same endorsement. Now 70 female local government officials also endorsed Robredo, the lone female presidential aspirant. In social media, top businessmen have issued personal statements endorsing Robredo and warning against the tsunami of misinformation that has inundated the pre-election landscape.

Prominent officials and businessmen are finally coming out, lending their voices and reputations to redirect the myth-propelled electoral bandwagon toward the May elections. They are seeing a disaster that people cannot see or feel. These endorsements represent a realistic situational awareness of the country. But how will these warnings by the cognoscenti be understandable to the voters in the margins?

Over the past several years, when President Duterte was “missing,” the government was likened to an airplane without a pilot. In the May elections, if the Philippines were a jumbo jet with 110 million people, it would be crazy for the passengers to vote for the pilot, but that is exactly what is happening. It would not be so bad if all the candidates were certified pilots. In the case of the election for the president, however, all the certification required is that the candidate is a Filipino citizen, a resident for over 10 years, and at least 40 years old.

It is not the fault of the people, but of the electoral system we have foisted on them. In a functioning representative democracy, the passengers are normally only asked to choose which airline they will fly with—the equivalent act of choosing a political party. But we have so mangled our political party system that we are now asking the people to actually choose the pilot!

The endorsements from former officials are sobering advice from those who have served as airline captains, pilots, and crew from previous fights. They know whereof they speak, and there are critical points we need to learn from them.

The first point is about pilot discipline. One cannot be a pilot, responsible for hundreds of souls, if discipline were not an integral part of one’s character and training. Part of inculcating that discipline is the milestones a pilot goes through. Pilot training follows a highly systematic and regulated system. The basic message is—there is no shortcut.

The first major milestone is the solo flight. Many of us who had to go abroad to study and bring home a college degree know the tribulations of this experience. As one looks at the solo flight of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. having been in that situation before at Oxford, without the $10,000 monthly allowance, one must say that was a failure, a mushy foundation over which no real managerial skill has been built upon.

One of the important traits of a chief executive is personal discipline. One of the things that caused Joseph Estrada’s popularity to plummet during his presidency was his lack of discipline, his midnight “second shift Cabinet” plied with song and wine.

The second milestone is when the pilot is in command of his own airplane. In politics, this can be the equivalent of being a governor of a province. Many articles about Marcos Jr. being in command point out he was an absentee governor who could have done better. More damaging is that Marcos Jr., so entrenched in the Solid North, does not speak Ilocano.

The endorsements from former government officials come at a stage of discovery. The campaign shifts to a constant search for the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates. Who knows what specific issue will become so resonant with the masses that it can kill the candidacy of a presidential bet, the way Manny Villar’s pretense at being born poor boomeranged against him.

The electoral winds are shifting, and powerful forces are at play. The physical and mental rigors on the candidates in the next 100 days will affect the outcome of the contest. It seems that peace of mind for the nation requires that the last man standing is a woman.

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