01:12 am: A Classmate of Mine Wrote This Article Why He is Voting for Noynoy
TRUSTING NOYNOY
A Framework for Decision
Jose Gabriel M. La Viña
April 28, 2010
Twelve days from today, we will be choosing the 15th president of our
republic in the country’s first-ever automated elections. A cacophony of
slogans and reasons for supporting one candidate or the other permeates the air.
Some say this election is about the yellow or the green, the orange or the
tangerine. Others seem to think it’s about the Ateneo, U.P. or La Salle.
Still others debate the influence of Kris Aquino, Willie Revillame, or God
help us, Manny Pacquiao. I say it has come down to a battle of wits and wills
among eight men and a woman. I say it has come down to a choice as to who
among them we should trust to lead our country to greatness, to put the
people above himself, his family and his friends. It appears now that of the
nine, these three—Aquino, Villar and Estrada—have the best chance of
winning. Ultimately then, this election is about a choice between them. In all
probability, it is one of them who will prevail.
I share here my own reasons for choosing Noynoy in the hope that those of
you who are still undecided and those who could still change their mind may
come to the same decision. Moreover, accusations hurled against the
senator, including one made in the last 24 hours about events that supposedly
occurred in 1979, have pushed me to join the debate in a more public way. You
see, I knew Noynoy Aquino then. Finally, I write this as a memento for my
children who are politically coming of age and voting for the first time in
this election. They have inspired me to take time out from my usual
concerns to contribute more and work harder for the people’s campaign. It is for
them and millions of young Filipinos who continue to keep faith with our
country that we must make the right choice.
I. WHY NOYNOY
Poverty and corruption, democracy, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo—these are
the burning issues of this election. On all three, I trust Noynoy to lead
us, to put the interests of the people above himself, his family and his
friends.
Poverty & Corruption
It is estimated that 30% or 27.7 million of Filipinos as of 2009 lived
below the poverty line. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pegs
Philippine losses to corruption at close to ₱2 trillion over a 20-year
period. This would have been enough to give almost 2 million Filipinos the
equivalent of ₱1 million pesos each, effectively lifting more than 7% of the
poor out of poverty, at least temporarily. If the money were instead used for
education and entrepreneurship programs, the number could increase
exponentially and in a more sustainable way. More importantly, a government that is
free of corruption can focus on executing strategies and programs meant to
advance our prosperity instead of lining the pockets of those who are in
power.
So why Noynoy? The simplicity of his lifestyle speaks for itself. He still
lives in the same room at his mother’s house on Times Street, a house
which itself has not transformed much from the time before his mother became
president. In the way that he speaks, dresses, and generally carries himself,
Noynoy is the portrait of a man seemingly detached from material
possessions. The way he has lived gives credibility to the argument: Kung Walang
Corrupt, Walang Mahirap.
In contrast, former President Estrada is a convicted plunderer. As for
Senator Villar, he has confirmed meeting with officials of the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange about his request to
exempt his real estate firm from rules meant to protect investors at a time
when he was already president of the Senate. "It is normal to go to the
PSE. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I only asked to be updated with the
news,” he contends. Some of the officials he met with have indeed concurred
that there was nothing illegal about his actions. Maybe so. But legal or
not, this plus the C-5, Norzagaray and other controversies all point to a
businessman unwilling to separate himself from his businesses even as he
occupied a post third in line for succession to the presidency of the land.
The Villar camp has countered by accusing Senator Aquino of advancing his
own interests in the SCTEX matter. Professor Winne Monsod summarizes the
differences between the C-5 Extension and SCTEX projects. First, no charges
have ever been filed against Senator Aquino unlike Senator Villar. Second,
there is not even a direct investigation of the former while the latter has
been found guilty of unethical conduct by the Senate Committee of the
Whole. Third, the final SCTEX construction is 2 kilometers shorter than the
original while the C-5 Extension is 3.4 kilometers longer. Fourth, the
government paid less for Luisita than for non-Luisita Tarlac properties and over
three times more for Villar properties than for those that were non-Villar.
Finally, Aquino’s ownership is indirect, representing only 2.2% of the total
at most, while Villar’s direct ownership stands at 100%.
In the fight against poverty and corruption, I trust Noynoy to lead us, to
put the interests of the people above himself, his family and his friends.
Democracy
In her unbridled bid to stay in power, President Arroyo has used the might
of the presidency to systematically attack democratic institutions.
Electoral fraud, extra-judicial and political killings, harassment and violence
against the media, an illegal declaration of a state of emergency, and cover
ups in the face of endless corruption scandals are all hallmarks of her
administration. Noynoy Aquino has consistently and vehemently opposed these
attacks on our democracy.
In an attempt to muddle the issue, Noynoy’s detractors bring up the plight
of farmers in the Hacienda Luisita. But the truth is he owns less than one
percent of the hacienda, had nothing to do with the massacre in 2004, and
has already announced that he wishes it to be redistributed without debt to
the farmer-beneficiaries by 2015. In contrast, Senator Villar refused to
be interpellated about accusations he profited from the C-5 Extension
project, breaking a time-honored tradition in the Senate of answering questions
from his colleagues. In addition, in a privilege speech he delivered as a
congressman in 1998, Senator Joker Arroyo accused Senator Villar of violating
the constitution to advance his real estate empire.
In the fight to strengthen our democracy, I trust Noynoy to lead us, to
put the interests of the people above himself, his family and his friends.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
And then there is the matter of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the most
unpopular and least trusted president since Marcos. In a sense, this election is
about her and the wounds she has inflicted on the Filipino people, wounds
that for many feel like they had metastasized from the abuses of the martial
law past to where we are today. People are asking who among the candidates
will be most unlike her, who will be the most vigilant in bringing her to
justice.
Manny Villar’s decline is largely attributed to suspicions he is GMA’s
secret candidate. Here too is where former Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro
falls exceedingly short of what Filipinos are looking for in their next
leader. For how can he lead us when he does not even feel our pain, when he
cannot even see the world as we do? How can he bring us to a better place if he
does not even agree with us about where our country stands today? In Gibo
Teodoro’s eyes, the GMA administration is one to be proud of with a record
he wishes to be judged on come Election Day. So be it.
Noynoy Aquino, on the other hand, is the antithesis of Gloria. This is why
he continues to rise despite claims by his opponents that defections from
the administration party to his camp and the connection of some of his
relatives to the GMA government are proof that he is not.
Because he is directly opposed to Gloria, I trust Noynoy to lead us, to
put the interests of the people above himself, his family and his friends.
II. THE NOYNOY I KNEW
In desperation, Noynoy’s rivals have resorted to outright lies to try and
sow doubt about his fitness for office. The most vicious of these are
contained in two fraudulent “psychiatric reports” released by the camp of Manny
Villar. They paint the picture of a young man at the Ateneo: angry,
aberrant, hostile, punitive, psychologically unstable. They say this was Noynoy,
but I know that it was not. You see, I was there with him. I knew Noynoy
Aquino then.
I first met Noynoy when we were both inducted into the Central Board of
the College Student Council in 1979. He was the junior year representative
while I stood for the council of student organizations. His father was
languishing in prison, soon to be diagnosed with a life-threatening heart
condition. Noynoy was 19 and I got to know him well.
The Noynoy Aquino I knew was highly respected by his peers. Junior
representative is an elective position and anyone who has experienced politics at
the Ateneo can tell you it is a rough-and-tumble affair. Ateneans elect
leaders who are the best among them and the juniors chose Noynoy. The
discussions in the council were passionate and often contentious. We were facing
the vital questions of the Martial Law time. Through all this, the Noynoy
Aquino I came to know was quiet, rational, and very much in control of
himself. I remember being sometimes frustrated by his coolness, the almost
dispassionate way in which he would approach the issues, always with a reasoned
and critical mind. He often took no more than a few words to express his stand
and a casual observer might have failed to see that this was someone
resolute in both mind and heart. It is easy to underestimate Noynoy. He has the
ice-cool demeanor of Cory, not the rapid-fire rhetoric of Ninoy. His rivals
in these elections did and will pay a heavy price at the polls.
The Noynoy Aquino I knew was humble. Several years after our first
encounter at the Ateneo, after his mother had already been swept into power, I
sought him out again. Perhaps I just wanted to confirm in my own mind that
Marcos was really finally gone, that the nightmare was truly over. Noynoy and
I had lost touch so I called the trunk line in Malacañang without really
expecting to get through. This was the time of the coups and he must have had
his hands full worrying about the security of his family. But in just a
couple of minutes, he was on the line and we talked for awhile. It was the
exact same Noynoy I had known at the Ateneo. No air. No pretensions. No
change.
Was he unintelligent and lazy? Of course not. Even its most rabid critics
will grant that the Ateneo is one of the best schools in this country and
those who know the Ateneo can tell you that the Economics major is one of
its toughest. The fact that Noynoy graduated on time, even while a death
sentence hung over his father, is testament to his courage and inner strength.
Noynoy is a survivor with a bullet lodged in the neck to prove it.
Was he angry? If he was, he certainly didn’t show it. Was he sad? Wouldn’
t you be if your father were unjustly imprisoned for seven years, forcibly
dragged into a military court while suffering from chills and other ravages
of a hunger strike, and sentenced to death by musketry? Even with the
remoteness that comes when events have finally been committed to history, it is
still almost too hard for the heart to bear. Noynoy’s political opponents
have tried to use this against him, arguing as if it were a crime for a son
to mourn the suffering of his father. What they cannot see is that it is
this shared suffering that binds Filipinos inseparably with Noynoy, allowing
them to hope and dream with him as only victims of a common injustice can.
History is full of men whose sadness and anger impelled them to greatness.
If sadness or anger can drive Noynoy to heights greater than himself, then
let it be. The nation will be better for it. Even now, I see a change. He
has become more passionate, more forceful, more resolute. I see a man not
only fit to be president; I see a man with the potential to be one of our
best.
The Noynoy Aquino I knew was faithful to his father. As editor-in-chief of
the Guidon, I had requested Noynoy to ask his father for a message so we
could publish it in the school paper. Noynoy risked what little access he
had left to Ninoy to try and smuggle a letter out of that prison. He almost
made it, but got caught by one of the guards at the last moment. It was one
of the things we talked about when I visited him in Boston more than a year
later.
III. BREAKFAST WITH NINOY
It must have been sometime in 1981 when I visited the Aquinos in Boston.
The family had already settled into a semblance of what we now know were
three happy years there. I had gone to see then Mayor and now Senator Aquilino
Pimentel at the home of former Senator Raul Manglapus in Virginia, a
center of activity for the U.S.-based opposition to Marcos. Mrs. Pimentel
suggested I visit the Aquinos so I exchanged a few phone calls with Noynoy who
relayed a breakfast invitation from his father for me, my mother and an aunt.
I was excited of course as Ninoy had been my childhood hero. But this was
not the first time I was going to have breakfast with him. I had already
done so much earlier, when I was barely in my teens.
In the early 70’s, Cagayan de Oro had barely begun the rapid development
that has made it the bustling city that it is today. Through most of my
childhood, nothing much happened in my world before six or seven in the morning
when I would wake up to prepare for classes at the Ateneo just a kilometer
or so away. Only once were we awakened before dawn so our father could
point out a comet proudly parading its tail across the sky, never to be seen
again in our lifetimes and beyond. This impressed upon me the importance of
the event. And so many years later, when we were awakened once more before
dawn to have breakfast with a man my parents said would be the next
president of the Philippines, I felt excitement in the air. I must have been
twelve or thirteen when I met Ninoy Aquino for the first time. I sat with my
siblings and cousins at the children’s table just a few meters from where
Ninoy held court with the adults. He was on fire. Up to that time, I had never
seen nor heard a man talk so clearly and passionately, let alone so fast,
about what needed to be done to bring our country to greatness. It didn’t
matter that I was too young to vote. I decided to become his supporter.
The drive from Baltimore to Boston about a decade later felt like an
eternity. Again, our breakfast had been scheduled for very early morning and we
were running at least an hour late. I was worried I would miss out on my
chance to see Ninoy again as he was supposed to have another meeting at
Harvard later in the day. When we finally got there, Noynoy met us at the door.
My mother and aunt waited for Ninoy at the dining table while Noynoy and I
stayed in the den where he played me the latest album of Seawind, a then
popular jazz fusion group from Hawaii. When he finally came down, Ninoy
explained that the Aquino girls couldn’t join us because they had stayed up
quite late the night before to eat ice cream.
Soon, it was time for breakfast and I joined Ninoy and the rest at the
table. Again, he was on fire. My spirits soared when I realized how seven
years and seven months in a Marcos prison had failed to break this man. I felt
proud to be Filipino. I remember too that this was the first time I caught
a glimpse of the woman the world would later come to know as Cory. Hers was
a different kind of charm, almost the opposite of Ninoy in her coolness. It
was as if you were watching a movie where the director cuts back and forth
between one scene and another, the first double packed with action, the
other in slow-motion grace. At one point in the conversation, I could sense
perhaps just a tinge of sadness in Ninoy. He narrated how the children of
rich Filipinos at Harvard would turn the opposite way when they saw him
coming in their direction. He advised me against pursuing a career whose
usefulness was limited to the borders of one country. Think about all those
Russian émigrés who had to start over from nothing, he cautioned. I couldn’t help
thinking that perhaps he was in some way also talking about himself. I
left hoping that we had somehow buoyed his spirit.
Two years later, an assassin’s bullet took Ninoy out of this world and
into the embrace of history. I can still feel the heartbreak, the hopelessness
as I watched the television news from my room in Los Angeles that fateful
day. For a long time after that, I often wondered how many returns of my
childhood comet it would take before we would have another one like him,
another Ninoy. And so I must admit that when I journey home to Cagayan de Oro to
vote this 10th day of May, I will be carrying both Ninoy and Cory in my
heart. Sentimentalism, supporters of the other candidates protest. I think,
therefore I am not for your candidate, they say. I have been called many
nasty things in the past, but never someone who didn’t think. If anything, I
have been told that I think too much. And so I wondered: could it be that it
is them who have not thought enough? How can they not see what seems
crystal clear to the greatest number of voters in the country today, from the
tricycle driver you might meet on the street to the perfumed set you might
chat with at parties?
The answer came during a visit I made to my doctor. After she had noticed
the yellow campaign ballers on my wrist, she remarked that now she knew who
I was voting for. Trying to be polite, I replied that I hope it didn’t
offend her. “Oh no,” she answered, “I’m also voting for that family.” His
opponents attack Noynoy as if it were a crime to be born of Ninoy and Cory.
But their protestations fly in the face of what most Filipinos know: that
values are learned in the family and it is values that are most crucial in
choosing a president. Courage, integrity, love of country—these are far more
important than any self-proclaimed competencies and capabilities a
candidate claims to have.
I hope that by sharing the logical framework I presented earlier, I have
helped you in finalizing your decision to support Noynoy. If you are already
a supporter, perhaps you can use the arguments to convince a few more of
your friends. But I have also shared with you the reasons of my heart.
Leadership is as much a matter of the heart as it is of the mind. Two of our
most brilliant presidents, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, are our most reviled. As a successful young ambassador, a little prince
from a distant planet once said: "It is only with the heart that one can
see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." It is only with the
heart that one can see what is really worth fighting for, who is truly
worth dying for.
For all the reasons of heart and mind stated above, I trust Benigno Simeon
Aquino III to lead us to greatness, to put the people above himself, his
family and his friends. I choose Noynoy.
