The talented Mr. Villar
The president is firm.
“Let me say, in no uncertain terms: There will be elections in 2010. There’s your headline for tomorrow.”
In a country where we doubt even the sincerity of the half-naked 6-year-olds who beg for coins at car windows, there is no word for the sort of morons we must be to unconditionally believe the nation’s chief executive, who is guilty of some of the most dramatic lies in national memory. And yet, just as she announced last Friday that she promised elections, President Macapagal-Arroyo also issued a threat.
“Anybody who questions our resolve on this critical issue is undermining our country’s commitment to a vibrant democracy.”
Ms Arroyo is perhaps uninformed on what constitutes a democracy. It is precisely that right to question – critically, consistently, fearlessly – that measures the vibrancy of a democracy. It flies in the face of logic for anyone to claim commitment to the upholding of a democratic state, and still persist on defining what issues can or cannot be questioned. It is the same twisted logic that had former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez thundering in 2006 that the University of the Philippines should have its budget cut because “that school,” by constantly opposing government, is “degrading the national interest.”
Perhaps it is this administration’s unwillingness to be questioned – or to deny once questioned, as was demonstrated by Cerge Remonde and his valiant defense of the purity of the President’s breasts – that has permitted other competitors for the presidential post to do the same. I speak, of course, of the good Sen. Manuel Villar, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, the lone billionaire in the Senate, he of the rumored three public relations companies and four advertising agencies handling his campaign, whose heavy-handed financial bid for the 2010 presidency is eclipsed only by his campaign of national media avoidance. This, after all, is the gentleman accused of P400 million in graft in a Senate ethics complaint that his real estate empire had benefited from a C-5 road extension project in Parañaque City. The same gentleman snubbed his own Senate ethics hearing, and continues to refuse invitations to national forums.
There are those who say that the good senator is afraid of being asked tough questions regarding various controversies attributed to him. ANC, for example, invited Villar to its first leadership forum on May 11, an event televised worldwide. The senator sent his regrets saying he would be out of the country – and was later seen at the Supreme Court party of a retiring justice. He also declined the second forum invitation, again claiming to be traveling with his wife overseas. Offered another date, the senator still did not attend. The senator, however, is democratic in his refusals: he was also conspicuously absent last Thursday, when the Parish Pastoral Council on Good Governance gathered together all possible presidential aspirants at Plaza Miranda, in a forum that pushed through in spite of the crashing rain.
Perhaps he was “out of the country.”
Some forums, Villar says, are a waste of time. When finally waylaid by reporters, Villar criticized the format used in public forums, which he said focuses only on what the candidate plans to do and not on what he has already done – a misrepresentation that I believe many news anchors in various platforms would happily correct by interrogating Villar about his C-5 shenanigans.
Nacionalista spokesperson Gilbert Remulla says timing is everything. Villar, he says, is only waiting for the proper time to speak.
Villar has made no secret of his intent to run, a perfectly laudable decision compared to the coyness of his colleagues. Remulla says that the fact Villar does not appear at national forums does not mean he is not accountable. “Anytime, I’m willing to talk about my platform.” Villar sees no wrong in the deluge of commercials he has been flooding various networks, while discussing his successes at the by-invitation Valle Verde 4 country club. It leaves the rest of the country to settle for the questions entertainment host and talent manager Boy Abunda so happily poses in a recent commercial.
Remulla says that the senator is only choosing where to speak. It is an excuse that is illogical from the perspective of a candidate, whose goal, after all, is to reach as many of the country’s 50 million voting citizens in the next 11 months. I am certain that his small town forums give the impression the senator can shake hands, kiss babies, and relate with the masses, and it is not a bad thing, but frankly, it appears just as sincere as his millions-of-pesos worth commercials. Not because of the small forums, but because of his avoidance of the real questions. I do not know if Villar plans to advertise his way to Malacañang, but I do know that by dictating the reach of the forums he attends, and demanding the formula by which he should be questioned – Remulla says Villar is at his best on one-on-one interviews – Villar essentially dictates the questions that he should be asked. Given his track record, it is no surprise.
He claims that it is only in intimate, town hall-style meetings where he feels at home, away from the glaring lights of televised forums for 2010 presidential hopefuls. I suspect very few would accuse the man who hollered in the House of Representatives in 2000 while pounding a gavel as “shy.”
There is barely a year before the 2010 elections. Remulla – himself a former journalist – was correct when he said timing is everything. This is the time to ask for answers, to demand accountability, before another president hides behind the power of Malacañang, announcing that to ask questions is to challenge democracy.
Oct 4, 2009
i didnt know about this. july 19 pa pala to. wala man lang akong alam