Many years ago, when the former dictator in the heyday of his leadership of the country under martial law, an unsettling rumor hit the fan: the emperor was ill. It was no simple sickness. It was alarming.
The public was jittery. What’s the real score? Even back then, many people knew that the highest official of the land had a Constitutional duty to inform the public of the top leader’s state of health.
Among others who wanted to know the dictator’s true health or sickness , as the case maybe, were members of the opposition who were sidelined in the colorful Philippine politics. It was virtually a one=man game.
The joke went around that time how the dictator had allowed them to participate in an election. Of course, they were wiped out in the ballot. Did they really think they would win,? so the dictator asked, matter of factly ,with a straight face. Meaning, there was no good luck message.
Fast forward to the 1986 snap election. Dr. Alran Bengson, future Secretary of the Department of Health, bluntly told a group of pro-democracy, pro Cory partisans that the problem of the Philippines was not political. It was renal.
After the Edsa Revolution, it turned out that the most powerful man in the country had a fatal kidney problem. He had denied it, even showed his lean, unscarred physique to disabuse any suspicion or rumor to that effect. There was a time he even challenged his critics to a boxing match to prove his point. Anybody who can go four rounds with me?, the Machiavellian master taunted.
History comes first as a tragedy then repeats itself as a farce, according to Karl Marx..The first Marcos wrote a tragic history from which many peoples of the world learn a vital lesson in democracy or authoritarian government. The second Marcos has presided in what is considered to be the most corrupt government in Philippine history.
The son’s health issue is something not to worry about, It’s called diverculitis, a n internal condition of the digestive system that can be cured easily. It came at a time when many in government, including the son himself and other officials have been accused of diverting public funds .
The president first brushed off the illness as exaggeration, probably inspired by Mark twain’s repartee on his alleged death, which is par for the course in politics. When his critics , especially Vice President Sara Duterte, suggested there was something more serious, he branded the wild accusation as a lie. The distinction was political, not merely medical. After all, she has declared herself as a presidential candidate in 2028. She is also facing an impeachment process where her credibility or lack of it will matter.
The British writer C.S. LEWIS observed that politics or too much of it can trigger modern day diseases. Whether kidney or intestinal diseases are some of it, any politician should heed Lewis’s warning. It can prolong one’s life, even if your habitat is a province of lies.
When the celebrated architect of martial law was saved by people power in 1986, the late Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, was said to have been changed by a Lewis’s book, “Mere Christianity”, Enrile lived to be a centenarian before he hit the sack. Ironically, he never stopped politicking.
With the myriad problems the Philippines is beset with the oil crisis that has made the future more difficult with the prices of commodities rising oil inexorably, expect the president to have more than recurrent headaches plus you know what.
Surely, the vice president and her trolls will carefully monitor the president’s signs of vulnerability, apart from occasionally dancing tango with the First Lady.
As for other problems of the society, the president can call always lean on the reliability of two famous brothers in his government. There is the Ombudsman who is trying to make good the promise of the president that some big fish will go to jail in December, if not last year, this year. Congressman Zaldy Co is still on the lam somewhere in Lisbon, Europe’s oldest city. The Ombuds bro nearly caught up with Atong Ang if he was only quicker. Streets should be cleared of shirtless toughies and drunks, usually summer-induced stupidities. Otherwise, the president and the public have no complaint.
Whether the vice president will be convicted or not by the ongoing impeachment process, there’s no way there will be a political reunification , notwithstanding the president’s caveat never say never.
Even the vice president’s good luck wish to him in regard to his health challenge is somewhere between sincerity and sarcasm, noting the evident giggle from her coterie of supporters at the time she conveyed the apparent goodwill.
Like or not, health will always separate the power seeker and the power wielder. It is both a prayer and the shortest distance between two points. At best, the idea is to be truthful about it in the interest of the many. At worst, it is keeping the issue away from public discussion as much as possible. Political survival is the end game.
It is well known how the late John F. Kennedy became senator and ultimately president of the United States. He played the health game issue well, medically and politically. He may not have practiced the jumping jack technique as ably as the young Marcos displayed before the media recently. It worked so far to score a point across the board, Until the next medical bulletin or rumor hit the fan again.
