Rephrasing Quezon’s famous ‘run like hell’ quote

BE CAREFUL what you wish for—you just might get it!

When President Manuel Quezon declared, “I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans,” I wish he had spoken only for himself. Look at the mess we are all in now!

This country has had a succession of natural-born Filipino presidents who failed to bring about progress comparable to that of our Asian neighbors. And so we have remained a pathetic “Third World” country now left behind economically even by Vietnam, which was ravaged by war for decades while the Philippines was enjoying peace! What is our problem?

In past administrations, we have seen how corruption descended upon our country with a vengeance—this after it was supposed to have been driven out by “People Power I” in 1986, with the kleptocratic regime. Public funds that should have been used to fuel the country’s engines of progress found their way into the pockets of Filipino scumbags endlessly parading themselves as “public servants.” And so our Ombudsman already has it up to her eyeballs filing cases against plunderers left and right. Run like hell we surely have been!

Jejomar Binay and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., candidates for president and vice president, respectively—whose families are facing charges of unspeakable corruption and for allegedly amassing ill-gotten wealth in the billions of pesos—are threatening us with the nightmarish prospect of this country being run like hell some more! Happily, better alternatives—Grace Poe and Leni

Robredo—have started to show some gutsy and godly “power” to give them a run for their money (“SWS survey elates Grace, Leni,” Front Page, 3/15/16)!

And people who should know better (including lawyers, law professors and, good grief, Supreme Court justices!) think Poe, whose loyalty to this country is said to be under question, should have no right to become president. “We cannot afford to let a foundling (who may be an alien) run our beloved country,” they lecture us. If they really “love” this country so much, why are they not speaking out also against the scalawags who are now pouring their ill-gotten wealth into the electoral process to ensure their victory?

We dare to rephrase Quezon: We prefer to have this country run by a foundling, whom no one has ever accused of stealing people’s money, than by a natural-born or native citizen whom the Ombudsman determinedly wants to put in jail for plunder! Isn’t the choice obvious?

—HENRICO H. LACEDA, [email protected]