Hope begets hope.
There are intuitive indications, rational or emotional, that things will get better before they get worse in the new year that is upon us.
First off, and this is crucial to that hope and its array of derivatives, political mainly, that the vice president has heard – better, listened—to his present boss and former full-time partner, the president.
Or has heeded her better angels in the great season in Christian history where the real angels , as it was written, appeared to lowly shepherd that brought the good news and goodwill and peace to all men.
The vice president, who was the epitome of the real opposition in more ways than one, was simply the president’s thorn in the flesh. To forget about the whole partnership with him and charge it to bad experience and political naivete is an admission to imperfection.
But there is higher road. To err is human but to forgive is divine. To this end, she has made her message for the season, loud and clear, straight forward and unambiguous. It’s one that invoked forgiveness, compassion and love in the spirit of the season.
In a word, she hasn’t burned the bridge yet. The president had earlier admonished her indirectly via the media to remember James Bond: never say never.
Forgiveness, as one author wrote, is something you will need to cross over at some time, and it’s foolhardy to burn it ,or you will be cut off forever. Especially in the tricky realm where permanence in friendship should not be equated with interest.
Who can question the vice president’s newly– found open-minded ness and sincerity?
Not when there are not one, but three impeachment cases filed in the House of Representatives whose members have made no bones about who they will support in 2028? A former president who used to be her political caregiver has reportedly changed color, meaning defining what partisanship is all about. Please refer to the previous paragraph.
Not where the President himself has directed his alter egos to investigate, establish proofs and collect them for potential legal cases in the wake of what the House Quadcom has piled up in criminal liabilities and Constitutional accountabilities of the vice president and her minions. And there is lot.
There are two possibilities. One, he could have sung the “Mona Lisa”, when he gave orders to his concerned Cabinet members, where the medium is the message: they just lie there and they die there, meaning the cases.
Or he could have played England’s Henry II when he threw an ambiguous rant within earshot of his knights “ who can rid me of this meddlesome priest”, who took it as a direct order to accomplish the king’s annoyance as an order to kill.The knights eventually murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury who later became a martyr and a saint.
The president must have understood the implication of the filed impeachment of his vice president. That’s why he put his foot down on the lawmakers’ momentum to kick the process down the road. He knew a political martyr, let alone a saint, was potentially in the making. So he urged those behind the move to get their feet off the gas pedal.
The vice president though is not out of the woods yet, notwithstanding the president’s pushback. It’s a Damocles sword still hanging somewhere in armory to b e employed when it becomes necessary.
The former president and father of the veep is unconvinced. He has appealed to his constituents in Davao City to stick with him and his family in the uncertain time they are in and forget not what the former mayor, congressman and president has done for them in the past.
Whether he did that from a position of strength or weakness, the latest poll isn’t confirmative. To be sure, the decline of his daughter-vice president in the net approval contest is not encouraging. The buck always stops at the President’s door, whether it’s ab out inflation, debt or even traffic. The spare tire is spared the blame.
The vice president’s fault , however, isn’t in the stars but with what she had imagined herself of doing or planning to do against the president and two other people close to him. It was later ascertained that, fortunately, she didn’t have the wherewithal to make good her bombastic threats, real or imagined. It was all sound and fury signifying nothing.
The President, for his part, has appealed to a mortal exemplar, Dr, Jose Rizal, in his own call to pragmatism as a leader. The great hero was lower than the angels but well within the reach of so-called patriots in terms of sacrifice and emulation for the sake of the country. He was a national hero, not an ambitious politician seeking power and other things that go with as fodder for political aphrodisiacs. Time to change the game.
With her offer of forgiveness, compassion and love, the vice president has complimented the president’s across-the-board call to politicians and non-politicians alike to be catalyst for change for a brighter future.
The two Christmas messages of the two top officials of the land augur well for Philippine politics which has been, of late, a big embarrassment to the whole world. The expected trickle- down effect on governance, integrity, economic growth and other aspects of the Filipinos way of life could be immense.
It’s always best to start the new year with optimism. In the words of former President Fidel V. Ramos, the best is yet to come.
