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The perils of a Poe presidency
by: Retired Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz

SPEAKING as an ordinary citizen with no claim to political savvy, I would say that many of the problems confronting us today can be traced to the candidacy of Fernando Poe Jr. for President of the Philippines. Foremost among these problems is the deteriorating economy that is threatening to make our country the basket case of Asia.

Although not the economic expert that President Macapagal-Arroyo is reputed to be, many people associate the alarming slump of the peso with FPJ's announcement of his availability for the highest office in the land. The Poe candidacy and the probability that it will succeed have frightened many actual and potential investors, local and foreign, from risking their money under his administration.The masses, or at least the less discriminating among them, are not bothered by such dire speculations. FPJ is Da King of Philippine Movies who always makes his enemies bite the dust with his rapid-fire guns and staccato punches. Their idol can do no wrong. He is the invincible Panday.

They see in FPJ their last hope for salvation as our next president. He will make mince-meat of the nation's problems, including graft in the government, crime in the streets, neglect of education, insufficient health care, dissidence and banditry, and other difficulties past presidents with all their superior credentials have failed to solve.

The bakya crowd tends to identify with FPJ because, like its barkers, he too is not a college graduate; in fact, he is only a high school drop-out. Their confident argument is that if his erudite predecessors with all their academic degrees have failed to improve their lot, President Poe should be given a chance to do so, and will succeed.

There is, of course, also the possibility that he will fail-which is more likely because of his inferior recommendations-but that does not disturb them. He is their hero, right or wrong, and will not fail them like Erap.

Moreover -- and this is the ace up their sleeves -- President Poe will not improve their lot by himself alone. Poe will have a staff of expert advisers who will tell him what to do. (One of them is Sen. Tito Sotto, the former TV clown.) "Tell" is purposely used here because that is exactly what they will do to their president who will be like a blind man groping in the light.

One can only wonder why such supposedly responsible leaders as Senators Edgardo Angara and Aquilino Pimentel could be so irresponsible as to inflict Poe on the nation as the next president of the Philippines. They cannot be so obtuse as to not recognize their candidate's obvious incompetence for the high position he presumptuously seeks.

Especially at this time when the country is confronted with virtually insurmountable difficulties, any person with average intelligence -- and especially leaders with supposedly superior circumspection -- should realize that the election of an intellectual lightweight with no experience at all in the science of government is fraught with grim forebodings.

The less charitable conjecture, and it could be the correct one, is that Poe's supposed advisers are merely setting him up as the apparent president, with them manipulating him from behind the scenes like a puppet on a string. The naive FPJ would be fair game to these schemers who, unable to win the presidency in their own right, will be using him as a front to achieve their own ends.

Has FPJ read the Constitution of 1987 that he will enforce if he is elected president of the Philippines? How would he define globalization? Will he support the open skies policy? Does he actually understand the pork barrel and its operation? Is he for or against the coalition forces, and why? And what about the death penalty, the rhythm method, divorce, political dynasties, religious electioneering and other debatable issues?

He cannot just say "I don't know" about these vital topics; he must take a categorical and specific stand on each of them. His now familiar "Sorry, I have to go" every time he is stumped by a relevant question has become the silly slogan of his know-nothing campaign. The sorry excuse that others might copy his long-delayed platform, which has finally surfaced, is characteristic of his stupid staff. The trite hodgepodge of motherhood goals is not worth copying at all.

The followers of FPJ, let alone his cerebral advisers, should realize that it takes more than a handsome face and make-believe skills in overcoming tinsel villains to solve the mammoth problems of the country. What is actually needed is competence, a deep sense of humility and the indispensable trait of patriotism that Ang Panday so effectively exhibited on celluloid.

If Fernando Poe Jr. is the patriot he claims to be, he can magnify that virtue by voluntarily withdrawing from the race and avoiding the ruin of the country under his presidency. That would be for him the highest form of patriotism and worthy of his make-believe image as the nemesis of evil.


IF YOU TOO FEEL A SENSE OF HOPELESSNESS ABOUT OUR COUNTRY BECAUSE OF THE LIKELIHOOD OF ANOTHER MOVIE ACTOR / HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT BECOMING PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES IN 2004, PLS PASS THIS ON AS A FORM OF ELECTRONIC PROTEST!!