Past and future

The event gives us a tremendous perspective on things. At the Apec summit last week, P-Noy was cheered by his audience for declaring in no uncertain terms he would not seek another term.

He is of course forbidden by law to do so. But that hasn’t prevented our presidents from dreaming of it, and in one case at least actually forcing it through. Who was of course Ferdinand Marcos. Except for Cory, the other presidents entertained the idea. Fidel Ramos did, with no small urging from Joe Almonte, and abandoned the idea only after he was hit at the last minute by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Erap might have entertained the same ambition, he was incredibly popular, except that he never even got to finish his first term. Gloria Arroyo most certainly contemplated it, her moves before 2010 all veering in that direction. Except that in lieu of a financial crisis, she got hit by Cory’s departure from this life, which dashed her ambition to pieces.

There’s something to be said for term limits, the President said at the Apec summit. Without it, a president would be discouraged from making an unpopular decision, however good it is for the country. “If you are concerned about the next term, everything you do will be set against the backdrop of how to secure your next term. It will be such a temptation to any leader, trying to please the people all the time.”

It restores our perspective on things. Whatever you say about the P-Noy presidency, and its enemies are currently saying a lot, having found an opening in its use of the Disbursement Acceleration Program to pay off the senators to convict Renato Corona, it is still the best thing to have happened to this country in a long time. It is certainly heaven compared to the hell we’ve just been through. The economy has never been better. Confidence in government has never been stronger, both at home and abroad. Public expectations have never been higher, as shown by the criticisms of government and public outrage over pork themselves. The public doesn’t just expect the P-Noy administration to be better than the previous one, it expects it to be better than itself.

Arguably, the P-Noy administration hasn’t entirely lived up to the expectations it itself spawned by its message of daang matuwid. Its use of the DAP to “persuade” the senators to see things its way will always be a black mark on it. However it argues that P50 million given to the senators who voted against Corona does not naturally mean the money was wasted, or went the Napoles way, two things are patent.

One is that the DAP has no legal or moral authority to exist, quite apart from being pork in itself, a thing that abets corruption, and anything that springs from it is the fruit of the poisoned tree. And two is that a payoff is a payoff. Whether the senators would have voted against Corona anyway and whether the senators used their additional pork wisely or not are irrelevant. The fact is that the administration took a shortcut, which went against the grain of the high moral ground it professes to stand by. A wrong means to attain the right ends produces the wrong ends. Look what has happened: The impeachment might have resulted in the conviction of Corona in the short run, but it has also convicted the administration in the long run.

Is this enough to damn the P-Noy presidency for being as corrupt as the two previous ones, or indeed worse, as the usual suspects propose? Certainly not. Which is what makes Ralph Recto’s suggestion that P-Noy could be prosecuted for the Malampaya Fund after his term insipid and insidious. His basis for saying so being that he cannot find the remaining funds, P130 billion in all, that the two previous presidents haven’t spent. Deputy Treasurer Christine Sanchez says the balance is in fact P146 billion and “is under a special account in the General Fund.”

Surely it’s the easiest thing to check that? But to suggest the hypothetical situation that the President could be prosecuted after he ceases to be president if the money is not found—but of course; what president would not?—is to create the actual impression that P-Noy is just as corrupt as Erap and Gloria, if not more so. Like I said, it’s insipid and insidious.

Which brings us back to perspectives.

True enough, the P-Noy presidency will have to be judged by its own standards, by its own strictures, but that doesn’t mean we have to be blind to the broader perspective, the historical perspective. That is the perspective of what has come before and what will come after.

P-Noy’s categorical statement at the Apec summit that he’ll step down after his term gives us back that perspective. There is really no comparing this administration and the previous one other than to talk of opposites. Whatever P-Noy’s lapses of judgment, they are nothing compared to Gloria’s lapses of judgment, particularly the one that entailed her talking to Garci to propose winning by one million votes over her chief rival, FPJ. That is the past.

Now comes the future. You think about what we have now and what we’re likely going to have three years from now, and you won’t be filled with elation, you will be filled with dread. Unless another miracle happens and another P-Noy materializes from the shadows, we are facing a bleak future. As things stand now, it’s just a choice between Jojo Binay and Mar Roxas, the first being one of a triumvirate that also included Erap and Juan Ponce Enrile, and the other being the head of the one party that currently controls the public coffers. Is it likely that party or that head will not use it to ensure a victory?

You think P-Noy sucks? All it takes is to look at the not too distant past and the not too distant future.

And you’ll have an appreciation for the all-too-fleeting present.