Changing Our Nation

The overwhelming electoral mandate of Benigno C. Aquino III from our people weary of an almost decade long Arroyo (mis)administration reflects the intense desire of our people for change. Now that the first step for change has been taken with the transition to the Aquino presidency, the hope grows strong that indeed, this time, change will not just bring about new faces with the same self serving agenda. We desire no less than a paradigm shift. This entails not only a complete national character make over but a true personal transformation of our leaders committed to bring this change to reality.

The changes that we hope for must start from the top and our new crop of leaders must set the example. This is a most formidable task for President Aquino and the people he places in positions of power with the mandate and capacity to effect change. This change will not just be a superficial face lift but a major surgical operation more akin to an organ transplant than mere cosmetic surgery.

It will be uprooting the deeply embedded culture of corruption in the mechanisms of an indifferent government. It will mean firing the hearts of our leaders to burn with patriotic fervor rather than selfish ambition. There should be a genuine effort at serving the public rather than blatant opportunism to profit from official position. Our leaders must consciously choose to act with consideration for what is just, what is true and for what is “good”. This change, if and when it comes, would be no less than a triumph of “good” over “evil”.

The main role of President Aquino is to lead by example. He is the ideal and his presidency will have to exhibit a radical departure from the past dispensations. So far he has done well, but at this early stage, we can only hope that he will continue to do so. The fact that his leadership style is in marked contrast to GMA, already signals that change is indeed taking place. The public perception of Aquino as a trustworthy and honest individual bodes well for his presidency. His humility and sincerity are not practiced affectations. Noynoy comes out as a basically good guy with a refreshing sense of decency that connects well with our people, unlike GMA’s seeming insensitivity to the people’s disapproval of her ostentatious and profligate ways.

Mrs. Arroyo’s pride and arrogance made her a most unpopular national figure and this she carried with her until her last haughty, self satisfied gestures, when she bid her presidency goodbye at Noynoy Aquino’s Inauguration at the Luneta Park last June 30^th. Mrs. Arroyo in her last gesture of defiance to a nation relieved to see her go burdened the incoming administration of President Aquino with hundreds of midnight appointees to lucrative positions in government agencies and government owned and controlled corporations. But then again, Mrs. Arroyo was true to character until the end.

Enjoying the highest level of approval ratings, President Aquino could very well count on this good will to push forward his agenda of change in the way government is run. His campaign promise for an honest and transparent government is the foundation for his mission of changing our nation. The expectations for change are high and the people will be watching P-Noy’s every move, not because we seek to find fault or reason to condemn but because we want him to succeed.

This is the role that many volunteer groups that supported the Aquino campaign find themselves in today: that of watchdog. These groups have taken on the task of monitoring all presidential action and with it the functioning of government. I welcome this involvement and believe that transparency and accountability will result from the active involvement of the public. Government officials should not resent this concern but rather should openly encourage public participation in the processes of government. With this kind of attitude from government, public trust could thus be regained. This change alone could be the basis of a new and functioning relationship between our public servants and the public they serve.

At this point, unsolicited advice from so many diverse groups flood Malacanang and President Aquino must sift through them all and decide what to do. But he must remember that he is the president of the nation and must consider the interests of our people as a whole and this he must put above everything else.

This would not be an easy task but as president he will have the final say. The decision will come from him and if his men err, it is the president who will be blamed. It is therefore imperative that President Aquino must have unlimited access to inputs from the different and differing sectors of our society. He must be careful and avoid being the victim of his own people deciding on what is good for him. He should be wary of the ‘cordon sanitaire” and not lose the feel for the common people. For in the end, the responsibility for bringing change to our nation lies heavy on his shoulders.

President Aquino’s simple act of foregoing the use of “wangwang” or sirens by the presidential motorcade sends a most effective message both to the “masa” and to those in power. In obedience to a Marcos era law that limits the use of sirens and blinkers, P-Noy in his Inaugural Address states his adherence to a “no wangwang” policy. To us, that act says that President Aquino is one with the masses as he forgoes of the privilege that is one of the trappings of power. This gesture reinforces his common touch. In effect he says: I am one of you.

His willingness to face Metro-Manila traffic as an ordinary motorist gives assurance to those that voted him in power that he will be sensitive to their plight and travails. The next several days, hundreds of sirens and blinkers were voluntarily surrendered and dismantled by the privileged that were in a sense shamed by President’s precedent. It has been six weeks of the Aquino presidency and Noynoy has not wavered from this policy. Such consistency brings about changes; a case of leadership by example.

Several days ago, President Aquino issued a directive to all government offices that his name or likeness should not be used in any program nor should it be acknowledged in any projects which has been the practice of not only the Arroyo presidency but previous administrations as well. Literally thousands of billboards, tarpaulins, and signage proclaiming gratitude to this and that government official, politician and most ubiquitously, the now ex-President Arroyo, dot our country, from the northern most island of Batanes, to the southernmost tip of the archipelago in the Tawi-tawi Islands.

Such aggrandizement brings anger to many Filipinos who know where the money is coming from to fund these programs or projects and where the profits go. Just imagine the hundreds of millions of pesos (if not billions) that is wasted on such grand proclamations of shameless self promotion.

Again, it was the case of leadership by example: a very bad example. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, probably in her insecure desire to be remembered as the president who has achieved the most, made sure that her name (together with her Photo-shopped portrait) appeared in many important and impacting programs and projects of her administration; a constant reminder from her that we owe her.

Well, she did have her own share of achievements, the most glaring of which is the dubious distinction of landing the Philippines as one of the top most corrupt countries of Asia. She also was to oversee an administration plagued by the most shameless scandals of greed and abuse of power. To top it all, the Philippines was declared the most dangerous area to practice journalism as evidenced by the Maguindanao Massacre perpetrated by a political clan responsible for massive electoral fraud allied with Arroyo.

She also had an intensely abnormal drive to name every other school building, street, and even an airport after her father, probably a belated attempt for a more favorable treatment from history for her father. But she only succeeded in attaching the name of the late ex-president to projects that were graft ridden such as the most expensive stretch of road in the Philippines: the Diosdado Macapagal Avenue where billions of pesos ended up lining the pockets of favored contractors and the gold mine that was the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

So everybody happily took on the practice of shame less self promotion. It seemed that GMA surrounded herself with very insecure people who needed constant reminders of their greatness, the very same malady affecting the diminutive Mrs. Arroyo. Just look at the attempt of Bayani Fernando to change the color of Metro-Manila to his favorite pink or the gargantuan billboards of then Secretary of the DPWH Hermogenes Ebdane all over the country proclaiming his sponsorship of a DPWH project, most sought after by the contractors for being very profitable.

There are initiatives from both houses to stop this practice that has really gotten to the point of ad nauseum. I think that we should not have reached this point wherein it would have to take legislation to do this. President’s Aquino directive should be enough. Please no more of basketball courts with politician’s names; no more of road projects with giant billboards proclaiming the generosity of such and such congressman; no more of plaques on city buildings listing every councilor responsible for the building’s existence; and most especially: no more expensive lampposts bearing the mayor’s name and the city professing eternal gratitude (as if this project was not a profit making venture).

Aquino’s choices for his presidential team bears watching and intense scrutiny should be expected from a public all too often burned by betrayal from our government officials. Yes, our nation has grown weary of the arrogant and profligate ways of the Arroyo administration. In this regard the Aquino administration officials should tread carefully because the very public that supports Aquino now could in an instant turn against him if there is any hint of corruption in this administration. The many instances of the public display of Arroyo’s insensitivity to the suffering masses made her presidency the most unpopular and if not the most hated since the Marcos era. We must be vigilant and not let this happen again. An aware and concerned citizenry is our best hope for good governance.

I am sure that we are and will be turning a new page in our country’s history because of the Aquino presidency. I hope and pray that President Aquino remains committed to bringing about the changes that he promised our long suffering people. But we cannot just leave this task to the Aquino administration alone. We too, individually have our responsibilities to fulfill and we should take an active part in this process of changing our nation. To change our nation calls for the most radical step of all: changing ourselves. God bless the Philippines.