If there is such a thing as unli rice, why not unli politics, or more aptly, unli terms for elective officials? After all, the Constitution is only a piece of paper, and you know, you can do a lot of things with it other than throw it in the trash can. It is –or should be –the nation’s conscience ,but conscience can also be ignored or given a respectable revisit every now and then.
Politicians, or most of them anyway, will invoke the Nile, but political denial is more often
counterintuitive than not. “Cogito, ergo sum” said the French philosopher Rene Descartes. I think, therefore, I am.
“It’s self-serving,” cried out reminted senator Jinggoy Estrada who has just won another political term despite allegation of pork barrel scam hounding him, in a Freudian reaction to Pampanga Congressman Dong Gonzales’ refiling a bill changing the terms of elective officials in tantalizingly new terms. It’s minus one year times two terms for the president, plus two years times two terms for him and others.
The impossible dream is the ideal, the “ reach” in exceeding our “grasp” or what’s heaven for, so rhymed the poet Robert Browning. It’s been tried and tested before, and failed, showing without any iota of doubt that the Philippines is still a democracy notwithstanding signs to the contrary. The new president, a living memoir of the past, happy or unhappy, golden or not depending on which side or pocket you’re on or in, was voted into office by 31 million people.
In his late (in)famous father’s time, one American senator discarded politeness as a political virtue and described the Philippines at the time as nation of 30 million nincompoops led by one SOB. He was also being prophetic about his own country when a mob attacked Washington last year , charged that a sitting president was robbed of his reelection and nearly turned American democracy upside down. His president, like Nero, was tweeting and cheering his fanatics from afar.
“I thought all the while, “ said the late United States President Ronald Reagan “ that politics was the oldest profession. Manong Johnny Enrile , immediately summoned by the son of his late boss as his legal adviser, can attest to that. He has been there, done that, said this and unsaid that, too. At the very least, he is a living relic of Philippine politics at its best and at its worst.
I asked Dong about his proposal a few days ago. He replied, via text, with a question. “Eya makuyad ing 3 years?”, the assumption is implied. Three years are short. He was probably coming from an old-boys club’s saying that three years are not enough for a good official but too long for a bad one. You get the drift.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt instead of the reverse. His town, Mexico, is gearing up to be the province’s next city. His job is not yet done. There are more roads to pave, more bridges to build, more barangay halls to erect, more covered courts to rise, more scholarships at stake, more dialysis patients etc. “ How much does a person , even a rich one, need? “ ,the American oil tycoon John Rockefeller was once asked. “ Only a dollar more”, he answered.
His two children’s topping their races in the local elections – a son as San Fernando’s councilor and a daughter as provincial board member, was an enviable, irresistible incentive. He probably thinks they, like other upcoming leaders, deserve more time to serve their people. His term as lawmaker also expires three years from now. The Great of Wall of China was built by dynasties, notably the Ming Dynasty, presumably as a result of political terms longer than three years. His bill has a point, historically from the Chinese vision, which conjures up a golden age for the Philippines under the new kid on the block.
Chinese loans and the West Philippine Sea are different stories. Nihao.
There’s also the Kennedyian perspective.
“All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration nor in our lifetime on this planet,” Kennedy said in his inaugural address. Dong has easily logged more than 100 days, more than 1,000 days. He can easily identify with that reality.
A particular paradox is not lost on Dong. When his favorite politician and benefactor was still alive, the late Gov. Bren Z. Guiao, he and others listened to him wonder why people were so passionate about politics when it was a thankless job. The late venerable Angeles City Mayor Francisco Nepomuceno had an explanation. “ Me- Guiam ya mu ( he was just engrossed in it, or something like it) playing on his surname, Guiao. Dong knew how Guiao became a sad and lonely man after he was beaten quickly and mercilessly by now Sen. Lito Lapid. The voters conveniently forgot his huge accomplishments for the province.
Voters are not only forgetful and fickle-minded but expensive, very expensive. The cost of
votes rises every year, not incrementally but, apparently, in relation to inflation and whose faces are on the paper denomination, polymer or not. The eccentric but exceptional Mayor Maning Santiago once told me that he spent no more than P100,000 to win the mayoraly in conservative Guagua, one of the cash-richest , oldest towns but not yet a city. Today, one barangay captain I know spent P3 million to make his friends, relatives and neighbors vote for him en masse.
Dong knows that well , too, perhaps too well. So, how can you blame him if his bill seeks to reduce his risks of losing his shirt along with his election? Politics is a pragmatic pursuit through a rabbit hole. How much did the second Marcos president plunked off their enormous wealth to get P31 million Filipinos to choose him, warts and all. Never mind the COMELEC, the Supreme Court and other political kibitzers.
Dong has confessed that he is tired after being in politics for easily nearly two decades. So, he leaves it to his two youthful political heirs to continue serving the people of the third district. For now, he is hoping against history that his fellow lawmakers will be like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders to rearrange its feathers.
