MANILA - With the Philippine presidential
election less than two months away, the six candidates
have come to sound only the single notes that
distinguish them from one another. Should one meet such
motley companions on the road to Manila, a la Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales, they might introduce themselves
as the types they have labored to portray throughout the
election season.
Former police chief Ping Lacson
would be the Constable. Former education secretary Raul
Roco would be the Reformer. Brother Eddie Villanueva,
pastor of the charismatic Jesus is Lord sect, would be -
why, yes - the Preacher. Recently disqualified nuisance
candidate Eddie Gil, running on a promise personally to
pay off the government's massive foreign debt (while
being unable to pay his own hotel bills), would be the
Clown. As for front-runners incumbent president Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and movie star Fernando Poe Jr, the
former would be the Politician and the latter the Hero.
Such typecasting might be more accurate than one
imagines. Take the issue of corruption. While a banner
issue for all candidates, each candidate emphasizes a
distinct approach. Roco advocates tackling corruption by
reforming the bureaucracy. Lacson vows to prosecute
grafters "without fear or favor". Brother Eddie calls
for moral leadership. Arroyo refers to her record. And
Poe, when he does proffer an opinion, is
characteristically vague, full of "one-liners and
motherhood statements", in the words of senate president
Franklin Drilon.
The reticent
candidate Poe's reticence is fully in keeping
with his popular image. Heroes are not expected to be
voluble. More so a hero like FPJ, as he is known, whose
celluloid personae are just as tight with words.
Political analyst Joel Rocamora explains: "Demigods do
not have platforms. They come from heaven with tablets
of stone." Poe's is, of course, a necessary reserve. Not
only do heroes become suspect if they talk too much -
suspected, that is, of mere mortality - but in Poe's
particular case, disaster seems to strike as often as he
opens his mouth.
A sampling. When asked to
comment on reports blaming the peso plunge on his lack
of an economic platform, he responded, "That's new. That
happens because we don't have an economic program?
That's new." When asked what the government should do to
stabilize the peso: "I really don't know. Do you?" Then
more confidently: "Work, just work." When asked how he
would spur economic growth: "Well, you see, about our
growth rate, it will rise when our funding rises." And
about how he would deal with Muslim insurgency: "We need
to let them know that what they're doing is bad,
especially the kidnapping of innocent civilians." That
these excerpts have been translated from the Filipino
indicate another misgiving about Poe: that he can't
speak English fluently. He reportedly told a group of
students in Zamboanga: "I will not fail you down!"
Poe is perhaps only outdimmed by Eddie Gil. When
asked what a normal day was like for him, Gil replied:
"Saturday." When interviewed about his plan to replace
the peso with the US dollar, he said: "Korea has the
Korean dollar. China has the Chinese dollar." When the
interviewer protested that Korea had the won and China
the yuan, he replied: "Those are still dollars." Another
time Gil refused to divulge his father's first name
because it was "too sentimental" and he might forget
what he was thinking. He did admit, however, that his
father would appear to him in dreams with instructions -
and that sometimes his father even wrote these
instructions on the blackboard.
Nevertheless,
even had he not been disqualified, a Gil presidency was
about as likely as his ability to pay off the national
debt. Because he couldn't win, he was laughed at and
considered comic relief. Because Poe could very well
win, his blunders are harder to laugh at.
Poe's
handlers realize that his image must be carefully
managed. Too much exposure can reveal him to be more
than merely fallible, actually incompetent. Hence Poe's
campaign persona has largely been kept to a reprise of
his celluloid personae. Poe begged off joining in a
presidential debate not because he was afraid of
embarrassing himself but because debates are "a waste of
time", and as a man of action, he had no time to waste
on words. Of course, this strategy furthers suspicions
that he is simply trying to hide his incompetence, but
better suspicions than their confirmation.
Few opinions and fewer details Even
the release of Poe's platform last week - finally - does
little to clear the murkiness of his campaign. The
platform hardly dares venture beyond platitudes on trust
and vaguely benevolent policy statements. It lacks the
specificity of Arroyo's and Roco's platforms or the zeal
of Brother Eddie's and Lacson's.
It is a
platform that clearly puts Poe's persona at its center.
"He is the message," said Poe's campaign manager,
Senator Tito Sotto. "His platform is his character." The
platform mainly reiterates the Poe campaign's chief
claim: that he is the only one who can unite the nation
and restore people's trust in government.
The
platform is framed along six promises: that a Poe
administration will (1)Restore people's trust in
government, (2) Provide for people's basic needs, (3)
Ensure that the government lives within its means, (4)
Protect vulnerable sectors, (5) Provide equal
opportunities for all, and (6) Balance conflicting
interests.
The first item is more the premise on
which the subsequent promises rest. For example, the
platform identifies poverty as the Philippines' gravest
ill - not surprisingly considering that the backbone of
Poe's support comes from the poorest quarters - and
posits the restoration of people's faith in government
as the first step toward redressing poverty. Other steps
that follow (the platform lists increased spending on
social services, transparent investment regulations to
attract foreign capital, and a nationwide employment
program) are subordinate to this first step.
The
platform reflects the campaign's assumption that trust
is something only Poe can deliver. It goes on to presume
that everything will follow from trust; that once Poe
restores people's trust, he will be able to muster
enough political will to implement whatever development
agenda he pleases. The specifics matter less than the
man. As Poe himself put it, "Without this [pointing to
his heart - although, of course, he could just be
indicating himself], the rest doesn't matter." Indeed,
the rest of the platform cleaves to this kind of
thinking. Its considerable vacuity can be excused by
recalling that, after all, Poe is the message and his
platform is his character. This is the mantra to
exorcise all reasonable skepticism. Following is
Poe's position on six issues of particularly
international consequence.
Globalization. Poe believes the
Philippines should actively participate in international
trade. He also believes that the Philippines should
achieve food security. To do so, he advocates greater
spending on infrastructure and research-and-development
projects as well as reforming agricultural trade
policies for fairness. This might prove to be an
untenable position. The pro-poor groups behind Poe's
candidacy want higher tariff barriers. All of Poe's
economic advisers, however, have consistently advocated
the dismantling of tariff barriers.
Foreign debt. A Poe
administration "would look into the possibility of
restructuring our sovereign debt in the domestic and
international financial markets". These words, innocuous
as they might seem, sent shivers down the financial
market's spine. Not that debt restructuring is anything
new - the Philippines has been doing it since the 1980s
- but such a big word on Poe's lips made creditors
wonder if he knew what he was talking about; if he
didn't, perhaps, mean debt repudiation. That Poe's
spokesman had to clarify that his boss did indeed use
the word correctly says a lot about how the financial
community sees Poe - and, of course, how they would
react in the event of a Poe presidency.
Foreign policy. Poe promises to
promote a more "visionary" foreign policy. He also says,
perhaps by way of explaining what he means by
"visionary", that the Philippines should "intensify"
cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), Japan, China, the European Union, and
the United States. That's about as much explanation as
he gives.
Insurgency. Poe
advocates the formulation of a national peace policy in
order to frame the government's negotiations with
insurgent groups. He doesn't elaborate on the contents
of said policy.
Terrorism. Poe
advocates the formulation of a national security
framework to deal with terrorism. Again, he doesn't
elaborate. (One is left wondering about such groups as
the New People's Army that are classified as both
insurgent and terrorist. Under which framework would
they fall?)
Charter change (to
shift from a presidential to parliamentary form of
government). Where the other candidates (including Gil)
have taken a stand, Poe hedges. He will "conduct an
in-depth review of the possibility".
A
presidency of courtiers Without question, FPJ the
Hero can get elected simply on the basis of what he
represents. But what happens once he becomes president?
He cannot count on insurgents to be cowed by his
tough-guy film roles. He cannot bank on his experience
as the owner of a movie production company to inspire
investor confidence. On the contrary, his lack of
experience and his projected dullness will dissuade new
investments. Investors will view him differently, as FPJ
the Dunce.
A Poe administration would be a
presidency run by courtiers - by politicians whose own
images have become too laden, too tarnished, to excite
the masses. "Let's say it like it is," says Rocamora.
"An FPJ presidency will restore to power the people
behind both [Ferdinand] Marcos and [Joseph] Estrada."
The politicians behind the two most vile and corrupt
administrations in Philippine history, the two that had
to be removed by popular uprisings, may once again have
the president's ear.
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