In memorium to former President Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III, I have included an article I wrote about him just before he took office in 2010. Admittingly, I had my doubts then about Noynoy's political skills and his ability to take on the many challenges that Filipino presidents are perpetually faced with. But I never questioned his heart or his integrity.
I’m sure everyone one of us is familiar with the saying, “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it.” Or something to that effect. Enter Noynoy Aquino, the presumptive winner of the 2010 Philippine presidential election. He will have the unenviable task of taking on the burden of implementing major reform efforts in a country that is highly-resistant to reform. Once he takes office, Aquino will have numerous problems to address, problems that in all probability will remain intractable even after his term comes to an end six years from now.
There is, as all Filipinos know, a historical precedent for an Aquino coming to power in the Philippines. Noynoy’s revered mother Corazon rose to the heights of political power back in 1986 under somewhat similar circumstances. Thanks to the wave of emotion and adulation of the Filipino people, “Cory” Aquino acquired the status of political savior when she eventually prevailed over Ferdinand Marcos following the snap presidential election and the EDSA I revolt of 1986. However, high expectations were placed on Cory despite her being a political neophyte.
Perhaps it was not realistic to expect her to fulfill those lofty expectations. Cory though, should have known that becoming the first post-Marcos chief executive would be all about transcending those impossible standards. As deep and complex as the country’s problems were then, her administration proved to be just as weak, divisive, and incompetent. Therefore, and this is something I always get frustrated saying about the Philippines, a golden opportunity for reform was wasted.
From what I have read and seen on television about Noynoy I feel more or less convinced that he is fully aware of the gargantuan undertaking that stands before him. Put aside for a moment his relative political greenness and his potential conflict of interest given his Cojuangco family background and their standing as one of the richest and most influential landowning families in the country. When it comes to future land reform, it appears that Noynoy has a good head on his shoulders and a good heart to match. What I am trying to say is that I expect him to be a popularly devoted, capable, and selfless president.
My main concern though, is not so much Noynoy and his character but his real ability to carry out necessary reforms in the face of an economic oligarchy and a political class that pounces on any attempt at change that is not in their self-interests. So it goes that in the Philippines, any change is never in the self-interests of the economic and political elite. I can’t help but paint the picture in my mind of Noynoy trying to a ride a horse that constantly tries to throw him, bite him, and which refuses to follow his directions.
We have to give up some very strong sympathy for Noynoy as he comes closer to assuming the presidency. He reminds me of someone who is going to try to run headlong into hurricane-force winds. Talk about reaching for straws or tilting at windmills. To phrase it differently, the oligarchs and the politicos have become the entrenched standard-bearers of reaction, obstructionism, and hubris. Nothing else expresses how discordant their interests are with those of Noynoy Aquino, the would-be reformer.
The Philippine presidency is not a job for the faint of heart or for those in denial. Noynoy’s mother Cory, as indefatigable and golden as her heart was, suffered terribly from being in denial about following through with her campaign promises of reform. Cory did make significant headway in political reform for she did after all, help restore democratic institutions. Dealing with land reform, corruption, and poverty were another matter, as, despite her best intentions, Cory found herself out of her element and in a warped universe where the true powers-that-be continued to bring Filipino society to its knees in accordance with their vested self-interests.
This is what I fear may happen to a Noynoy presidency. A few years or possibly months from now, we may be reading headlines like “Hopes Dashed” or “Presidential Disappointment” or “Tragically Following in the Footsteps of His Mother” in regards to Noynoy. I sincerely hope that I will be proven wrong and that he will not find himself in over his head after the crown is figuratively placed on his head.
ALLEN GABORRO
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