If Grace decides not to run…

IT’S QUIET in Graceland (not rock ’n’ roll king Elvis Presley’s famous turf in Memphis, but the camp of Sen. Grace Poe). For a top “presidentiable” according to the latest surveys, that’s amazing. The norm is for likely candidates to maximize and sustain public exposure with only three months to the deadline for filing certificates of candidacy.

Vice President Jejomar Binay has hogged the front pages and prime time since he resigned from the Cabinet, immediately lambasting the administration in speeches in Navotas, Valenzuela, Makati and elsewhere. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas has recently visited different places, distributing patrol vehicles for the Philippine National Police. And they are not yet campaigning. Meanwhile, there’s a general silence from Poe since the Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations surveys put her in the lead for the first time.

She must be in deep reflection. To seek the presidency is a very serious matter. And there’s the residency issue that she must hurdle in her conscience, without equivocation. If, her advisers’ legal opinion notwithstanding, she will conclude that she has to set aside her running for president or vice president because of the issue, she must then be contemplating how she can serve the country beyond her Senate function given the apparent trust that the Filipino people is reposing on her. If, by her own accord, she will decide not to run for president or vice president for lack of residency, that decision will be unprecedented in Philippine political history. Her moral ascendancy will take a quantum leap.

Perhaps more than a president, what the country needs is a transformative leader who will change the course of the prevailing value system. For far too long have power and money been the motivation of politicians seeking public office. If Poe makes the singular decision that the slightest doubt in her qualification for a higher post in the 2016 elections must make her forego the challenge, she can be that transformative leader. She will be able to rally the great mass of the silent majority that pursues national integrity. Think in the millions.

Poe can endorse candidates for president and vice president who are proven competent and incorruptible—and make them win with herself as campaign manager. There are many tandem options. There are many more names that can be tapped for a complete senatorial lineup—12 people with proven competence and clean of graft and corruption at the very least. Perhaps, a pool of 20 names minimum can be listed and a primary-type of selection process can be worked out by organizations that Poe can mobilize: community- and faith-based blocs, professional and advocacy groups, youth alliances, national and local people-oriented movements. There can be regional and sectoral representation, too. A “Dream Team” can be drafted.

Dreaming is free in this country so blessed yet so wanting. The dream is to have leaders who will transform society to be caring of those in the peripheries, a sharing society where the more blessed provide the less blessed with the means to pursue their own dreams. The dream is to have public and private partnerships that will ensure that the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of overseas Filipino workers—those who have sacrificed and given the Philippines the lifeblood for economic sustenance and wellbeing—will find opportunities for integral human development in their own country.

One decision can start a dream’s long hard road to realization: If Grace Poe decides to forego running for president or vice president, she can then put together a “council of elders” which can help her start a movement for change and transformation. She can organize a search committee for potential leaders who will fit the standards to be set on competence, integrity and governance exposure, among others. She can mobilize different organizations for the movement. She will not be alone.

A long-term socioeconomic development plan can be evolved for the country by the movement she will start.

There is time—three months to Oct. 16, the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy for Election Day, May 9, 2016. Admittedly, the idea may be crazy, the dream impossible. There can be much pressure on Poe from people around her to heed the surveys and pursue the presidential run regardless of issues that lawyers can handle. Her disposition may be to take the traditional route and fight it out, and not to lead a movement for transformation detached from corrupted politics. It is, of course, her call. And that must be respected.

Transcending politics is the challenge that a transformative leader must confront in the current Philippine milieu. There is too much of toxic and elitist politics. A viable formula to be able to take the challenge will have to be concocted. Changing the mindset of Filipinos toward a global orientation with local footing needs to be pursued. The landscape is changing; the soul must change as well. The aspiration for the common good will have to be highlighted. The support for Poe is likely to swell in the coming weeks. The goodwill can overflow. May that goodwill ignite the sought-after social transformation of all, by all, for all. Let it be the revolution.

Danilo S. Venida ([email protected]) holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of the Philippines and the Center for Research and Communication/University of Asia and the Pacific. He is a former president of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and is now a business consultant.