‘Presidentiables’ worrisome

Senators Bongbong Marcos, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla have been in the news lately, especially the last two, for various reasons, among them, their reported involvement in the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam. Still they are being bandied about as “presidentiables.” And in a few occasions, they did seem to be hinting about their presidential aspirations.

God forbid that one of them becomes president of this country. I will not put it past the Filipino electorate to make this happen. Stranger things have happened before. We have such a poor track record in electing good officials such that many of our countrymen continue to live in wretched poverty, even as the government wallows in corruption.

Imagine celebrities being voted into national office without the necessary bona fides. Prior to the Corona impeachment trial, there was this political harlequin who made no bones about his ambition to occupy the highest office of the land. I was so glad he made a brief appearance on the Senate floor and showed how he was totally out of his depth. He mumbled, stumbled and could only muster a joke and, in the process, became a laughingstock in the Senate. But to his credit, he brought a bit of levity to the occasion.

Marcos, Estrada, and Revilla worry me. I remember only too well the American saying, “The fruit does not fall far from the tree.”

God, please, not another Marcos in Malacañang.

Spare us too from the Binays. Does Vice President Jejomar Binay have the moral compass to lead this country? Not in my book; one of his most glaring fault is his being pro-political dynasty. The measure of a man is not reckoned by the fortune he has made but by the small things he does. I understand a parent wanting to defend his progeny, but preferential treatment because a son is the mayor of a big city?

Binay’s announcement to run for president in 2016 and the fact that he is considering Jinggoy as running mate do not increase his political stock. The man must be joking; Jinggoy has earned so much ridicule and notoriety for his reported involvement in the PDAF scam. In my opinion, Binay’s compass has definitely gone awry.

What about Mar Roxas? Succeeding the much admired Jesse Robredo as head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, he has big tsinelas to fill, but so far he comes across as puny. With so many pressing matters that should have been his top priority, especially after Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” he chose instead to make a personal appearance at a robbery site. Surely we have enough policemen who can do the investigation of the crime better than the secretary can, unless he feared then that they were totally inept. If Roxas wants to be president, he has a lot of making up to do to improve his performance and image.

So who will be anointed by the powers that be? Who will run? Who will be elected? I wonder. But I will continue to dream, to hope, that someday a Lee Kuan Yew—or a Moses—will emerge to lead this country and lift our people out of poverty into economic prosperity.

—ARTHUR BUAN,

toorobuan@yahoo.com