The yellow coliseum

24th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution
Araneta Coliseum
February 25, 2010

After seven years

Seven years ago

After seven years

My take on Noynoy

It has been said that Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s strongest selling point as a candidate for president is his integrity. People who know him or know of him will vouch to their graves that Noynoy will never lie and steal, unlike the people recently and currently in office. He will not lie and steal because he has no need to and because he simply isn’t engineered that way. After all, he is born to one of the wealthiest families in the country, and his parents are Ninoy and Cory Aquino.

The death of his mother last year reminded the people and made them nostalgic of what Cory had fought for, what Ninoy had died for, and what the country had once had: a government that was - to the best of its abilities - truly democratic, honest, and clean. This led to the people clamoring for Noynoy to run for president and his image of unwavering integrity has translated into a hope for genuine change. Five months ago, when he decided to run, the nostalgia and hope materialized into something concrete: it became a movement.

With the Cory fever on his side, and his character at the fore, he garnered up to as much as 60% in the initial surveys. This was achieved without jingles, ads, or speeches. This was achieved with nothing.

But now, three months before the elections, surveys show that Noynoy and Manny Villar are locked in a statistical tie with Noynoy at 37% and Villar at 35%, as the first choice of respondents for president. What happened?

1. I think that the hope, though made concrete, is not concrete enough. Noynoy’s campaign is wracked by factionalism. Strategies are not aligned, his supporters are scattered and from different backgrounds, and they do pretty much their own thing. Today, Noynoy recognizes this and formally tells the newspapers, “I just realized that there is not one person who is directing the show so I’ve decided to take the direct hand…” [also I heard tonight that the Noy people have moved today into a single headquarters..that should significantly improve the way the organisation is run right?]

2. There really is a dire lack of public awareness about his campaign. Noynoy has many genuine supporters, but they’re simply in the dark of what is happening. Formal campaign season began this month and Noynoy’s kick off rally in Metro Manila was held last February 13 in Tondo. This was the kick off rally of the front-runner, in the country’s capital. You would expect tens upon thousands of people gathered with uncontained excitement. But apparently, there were no more than 20,000, and there was no excitement. People seemed to be there hoping for free food and a chance to get a glimpse of Vilma Santos. No one gave a shit about Noynoy and many people left before he even spoke.

3. The Liberal Party is obviously sporting an “every man for himself” attitude, and this is detrimental to Noynoy's presidential campaign. In the kick off at Tondo, prominent Liberal Party hopefuls were there except Mar Roxas (Noynoy’s running mate at that!). The 12 candidates for senator each spoke for about five minutes, except Ralph Recto who spoke for almost 30 minutes because he was buying time for his wife, celebrity Vilma Santos, who was late, to make an appearance and end his spiel with a bang. Pathetic. Not right. And it appeared as if Noynoy was just another guy in the LP, running for just another post…and not the presidency. Pathetic. Not right. At all. These Liberal party people should shove it down their heads that ultimately, the goal is for Noynoy to become president. All other ambitions are secondary and even irrelevant.

4. Noynoy’s platform / advocacies are unclear. Think Angara, and Agriculture, Education, and most recently, Science & Technology come to mind. Think Legarda, and Environment comes to mind. Think Pia Cayetano, and Health comes to mind. Think Noynoy Aquino and what comes to mind? Cory and Ninoy. He is the son of two heroes; that is his privilege and his burden. And because his record speaks weakly of what he has already accomplished, it will be doubly difficult for him to get out of the parental shadow and make his own merit shine.

5. The Cory fever is fading and it seems that integrity may not be enough for the win. Granted that the trust and belief of a voter in a candidate’s character cannot be bought (though this is doubtable especially for the lower classes), can this trust and belief in Noynoy be sustainably imbedded in the hearts of Filipinos until Election Day to deliver the votes? Sadly, we Filipinos are a forgetful people. We support the “in” in the “now.” And now, with the bombardment of advertisements, it is Manny Villar who is in our faces.

But will I vote for Noynoy? YES.

I honestly think we should cut him some slack. Less than half a year ago, he was a non-candidate and had no desire to run. We, the people, were the ones that clamored for him. Also, he is incredibly inexperienced in this whole national elections thing. When he accepted the offer to run, he gave permission to be thrown into the wolves. Whereas his opponents have been planning and campaigning for about a year or two, he only has had only five months into the game.

Finally, despite all his “shortcomings,” I think we must remember and cling to the origins of his campaign. The campaign is a campaign for genuine change and Noynoy is merely a symbol; he’s the guy who holds the torch of reform and promise. But real change will not come from him alone. Change is too big a thing for one person and must be a team effort. This being said, it is of utmost importance that the leader is one with integrity, one who will appoint cabinet members with integrity, one who will oversee that the law is upheld and implemented by people with integrity. And it is of equal essence that the next president be a true bastion of democracy. And I bet Noynoy, just like his mother, will not be consumed by power, and will not run again after his term – as should a good president.

Also, realistically speaking, it’s just Noynoy vs Villar now...with all other candidates inconsequential. And I think people should pick Noynoy over a guy who makes such a big deal about his humble roots and envisions himself a model for the poor to rise above the ashes and become a multi-millionaire…yet remaining silent on how he’ll actually help the poor. Come to think of it, Villar is also silent about all the allegations against him. He’s silent during debates, too, and was pretty much silent (or absent) during the tail end of his term as senator...you simple cant trust people like that. Lotsa bad stuff brewing in their minds.

So anyway, please, Noy, get your game on! Pull a rabbit out of your hat if you have to. Because you might very well have to. For your country’s sake.

Everything's gonna be alright

Detroit, USA

Vancouver, Canada

London, England


A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
(I love google images!)

Fringe Benefits

I have just re-read J.K. Rowling's 2008 commencement speech at Harvard entitled The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination. Reading it now, I find it inspiring and...appropriate. Two years may have expired since my own graduation, but for some reason, I still feel like I'm standing on the threshold of something big. Or are we always on the threshold of something? 


Anyway, the lines that struck me the most are -

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.

Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not... it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

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