Theres The Rub
All the king’s men
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:35:00 05/23/2010
http://opinion.inquirer.net/
I’M glad that the president-elect— which should be fairly obvious notwithstanding the protests of Joseph Estrada, the only major presidential candidate left who hasn’t conceded it—has stopped giving his opinion about who he believes will win the vice presidential race. At the very least that is so because it is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact, to be determined by the Comelec and Congress. At the very most, that is so because he is the president now in all but the formality of being sworn in, and should begin being the president of his nation and not of his party.
I am not glad that his party, specifically Nonong Cruz and company who claim to be loyal to him—which is by no means obvious notwithstanding their protestations of it—continue to give their opinion about who they believe will win the vice presidential race. At the very least that is so because that is not a matter of opinion, that is a matter of fact, to be determined by knowledge available to everyone and not just to themselves. So far all they’ve presented are claims based on COCs no one has seen except them, which fly in the face of all tallies (near-complete, except for a few places in Mindanao), not least the Comelec’s and the PPCRV’s and the exit polls of SWS and Pulse Asia. At the very most that is so because it compromises the very person they claim to be loyal to, who is their president.
What can come off their furious insistence, amid the resolute contradiction of heaven and earth, that the vice presidential race was won by the LP candidate, Mar Roxas?
If Congress proclaims Jejomar Binay the winner and they cry foul, it puts their president in a bind. It compels their president to either contradict them or go along with them. If he orders them to cease and desist, well and good, he will be seen as presidential, rising above party, partisan and ultimately petty politics. But that puts pressure on him, and a huge one even before he starts. If he goes along with them, then ill and bad, he will be seen as the president only of his band and not of his land. That is not a promising premise for healing, uniting, transcending and all that jazz.
If Congress proclaims Roxas the real winner, then even worse. That will come as a surprise to everyone except them: Joey Salgado has a point when he asks how the vice presidential race could possibly be called “close” when Roxas has never led it in any count at any time. That will put their president not just in a bind but in a blender. If he opposes it—which is not likely—then it presents a government in utter disarray even before it starts. If he accepts it, then he will be seen to be a party to whatever it was that proved the Comelec, the PPCRV, SWS, Pulse Asia, and every other poll-taker/reader/interpreter in this country monumentally wrong. That will hound the new government with the same curse that did—and did in—the GMA government after 2004.
That will be the irony to end all ironies, that the government that took its first step in the journey of a thousand li on the vastness of Edsa was run over by a padyak and looked as broken down afterward as the one it replaced. That is not a promising beginning for someone who, like Spiderman, needs to be constantly reminded that to whom much is given, much is expected.
Manny Villar, Gibo Teodoro and Dick Gordon have discovered that graciousness always extracts victory from defeat, that in the end the only real and lasting victories are moral ones, not political ones. Villar in particular, who started the conceding epidemic, a thing hitherto unknown in this country, redeemed a great deal of what he lost during the campaign by that luminous act, which held echoes of the moment long ago when he banged the gavel and said, “The President is impeached.” Not enough to escape investigation/prosecution for C5 and the stock exchange fiasco—justice may never be drowned in a sea of beaux gestes—but enough to deserve loud applause for it.
Unfortunately, Erap has yet to discover the lesson. Well, he has yet to discover grace or taste in general. It adds only to his Eraptions that he is seen, after his wife and sons have won handsomely, scratching his head and saying that in his case the computer does not compute.
Cruz and company would do well to follow the example of Manny, Gibo and Dick. In other places and not just in other times, it is customary for loyal servants of the king or president to insulate him from any whiff of scandal, any hint of danger. The question, “Who will take a bullet for the king or president?” is one that does not produce a paucity of volunteers, whether the bullet is literal or metaphorical. That is the instinct of loyal servants, to protect the king or president at all costs, even of their lives.
This is the only country I know where it is customary for some people, the ones who are filled with a sense of entitlement for reasons only they can say, to push the king or president right in harm’s way, while they cower behind him. The question, “Who will take a bullet for the king or president?” produces only a lot of volunteering the next fellow, whether the bullet is literal or metaphorical. It does a disservice to servants, particularly the OFW variety, protecting the master at least cost, especially to oneself.
Put in another way, elsewhere in the world, loyal servants sacrifice themselves to protect their king or president. Here, loyal servants sacrifice their king or president to protect themselves.
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People keep asking me if I think a government of Noynoy Aquino and Jojo Binay will work. Well, right now I am certain only of one thing.
If Binay is scorned, marginalized and oppressed in any way, he can always complain of racial discrimination.
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