WE’RE SO bad off, once again, perhaps even more so, today.
Like the Jews in Biblical times, we need to pull through the next 40 difficult years . It’s the same length of time the Hebrews spent wandering in the wilderness, before we will reach our version of the promised land supposedly flowing with milk and honey.
For the Jews, in truth, the journey would have only taken them 40 days. Except that most of them were overwhelmed by the spies’ accounts of the giants in the land that made them look like grasshoppers in comparison. Fear gave rise to unbelief, notwithstanding the fact that they were just miraculously freed from centuries of slavery in Egypt, and consequently the detour. Also a case of bad memory.
The modern-day scenario was painted in black-and-white by Baguio City Benjie Magalong, retired general turned politician. (Dreams normally come in color. Nostalgia, real or imagined—like a golden age – usually comes in sepia glow). Apparently, it wasn’t his original message but had to drop it under the podium, as former President Fidel Ramos wont to do, compelled by a more timely, relevant and urgent warning : we have to get our acts together or we end up with a near-doomsday alternative.
Does this mean that, for the next 40 years, we will have to live with the equivalent of quails and manna in the desert, and are not supposed to get more than what we need? Were not the Jews constantly complaining to Moses that, at least in ‘Egypt, they had melons and cucumbers, onions and garlic?
In my father’s time, according to the gospel of the son, former Sen. Bongbong Marcos aka BBM, it was the best of time we should believe that it was the golden age. Hoodwinked, so many Filipinos want to go back to Egypt in time. It wasn’t so, or there was no such thing, wrote a former finance secretary and a former central bank governor. In fact, it was the other way around with an unstable economy and extreme poverty until the dictator was deposed by People Power in 1986.
It’s not an epiphany. Magalong read it literally from a report by Karl Chua, the boyish, Korean-pop star -looking head of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the agency that believes in numbers, more importantly, that numbers – or stats- don’t lie. The country is deep in debt by 11 plus trillion, and still projected to rise before the small-town despot steps down—who knows, even beyond — in three or fourth months. In fact, he has made it known he intends to leave much early and has begun packing. Goodbye or good riddance.
In short, we need 40 long years to recover from the twin knocks of the pandemic and mishandling of the economy as a result, the Pharmally anomaly and other dubious government transactions not included in the balance sheet. At least not yet, for obvious reasons: Duterte is still around and some senators are hemming and hawing about their signature on Sen. Richard Gordon’s report on the Pharmally probe.
We also need to elect seven more presidents to get us through. Good behavior is sequitur. The dice appears loaded against us. But first thing first: we need to choose wisely who should be the next president in 2022. The choice is so difficult, indeed, Magalong had to issue a clarification that he was not endorsing any particular candidate. Two days ago, he did: he endorsed his former boss at the Philippine National Police, Sen, Ping Lacson. Of course, Senate President Tito Sotto came with package
Much earlier, Magalong revealed he admired Vice President Leni Robredo because “ we’re aligned “ on good governance. It’s the same reason a well-known Duterte ally, Rep. Joey Salceda, preferred Robredo over the others. Good governance, he said, is good for the economy and ,therefore, good for the nation.For a while, it seemed Magalong would go for Robredo. His choice, however, is a no-brainer, given his background. But it doesn’t change his not-so-rosy outlook.
In a more infelicitous and blunt language, we are in deep shit and it would take more than wishing to change our dire condition. Voting the right person would. In choosing Lacson, Magalong has given us a hint on the important qualifications of the country’s next president: no history of corruption, past and present and with credible leadership ability. He might as well have endorsed also Robredo in this light, if only he had two hearts.
Unfortunately, unlike Chua, Magalong isn’t driven by numbers in his choice. Lacson is too far down below in the surveys Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has offered him the post as anti-corruption czar if he wins. Robredo and Moreno are the only other presidential bets closer to former Sen. Bongbong Marcos in the surveys. And the chance to beat him to the presidency.
By not choosing BBM, Magalong has made it clear he, BBM, is not what the doctor ordered. In other words, BBM’s victory on May 9 may mean two things: 1) 40 years may not be enough to win the future for us and 2) the next presidents after BBM may even be worse ( the law of averages ). It is sometimes said that how one goes back to the normal path depends on how far one has deviated from it. That may be true for the nation as well. How far have we gone off track?
“My dear,” Alice in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is told “ here we are to run as fast as we can to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you have to run twice as fast “.
The historic family and personal baggage of BBM will surely encumber the speed and direction of his leadership and governance. Those who have endorsed him so far , two former presidents, the incumbent and a religious leader in hot water – all accused of breaking the law and moral improprieties, will add to the deadweight.
If something can go wrong, it will, according to Murphy’s Law. Or, borrowing a line from an American official after being accused of spreading false information on Russia’s impending invasion of Ukraine: I’d rather be guilty of fear-mongering than for the real thing to happen. At least, in our case, nobody can say Magalong didn’t warn us.
