Siftings
President Noynoy?–Why Not Indeed?
These past weeks have seen a resurgence of hope for the country in terms of political idealism, transparency in governance, sincerity of public service, an upstanding democratic outlook focused on the nation’s poor. And all these because Sen. Noynoy Aquino has agreed to run for president of this country in the 2010 elections. Never mind if his opponents include a former convicted-for-plunder -pardoned president, an ambitious real estate billionaire cum ex-senate president, sundry oppositionist leaders. And now the latest serious competitor, his cousin, Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, incumbent Secretary of National Defense. President Gibo? President Noynoy? It only happens in the Philippines.
But I have a thing for Pres. Noynoy, for the following reasons which you may find silly, preposterous, comical. Here they are:
I. It’s in the numbers. If one is addicted to looking at numbers and their significance as influencing present and future events, the day on which Noynoy chose to announce his candidacy is the 40th day of his mother Cory’s death, September 9, the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year of the new millennium. Triple 9, or 999. This is the reverse of the no. 666 which is supposed to be the number of the anti-Christ, the devil’s spawn. To carry that notion further, the number 999 will logically reverse the evil influence of 666, which just happens to be the combined numbers of the present kleptocratic inhabitants of the Palace by the river. The first names of the couple plus their family name have six letters each, to make a triple 6! I am no student of numerology but of literary structuralism and deconstruction, which fact has made me sensitive to surprising numeral combinations which we often meet in real life.
Now take the pet name Noynoy: it has six letters. So has ‘Aquino.’ So far, a double six to counter a Triple 6. But ‘Junior’ has another six, to make a Triple 6. Only it doesn’t stop there. His mother’s maiden name ‘Cojuangco’ has 9 letters, the reverse of six; and his father’s name, which is also his own, has 7 letters, a strong number considered lucky. All together, Noynoy’s combined numbers can possibly break the evil spell holding our nation in thrall from the topmost branches of our national tree.
I know this is just fancy mind games which can make amusing text for texting aficionados. But one remembers the hair-raising numbers combinations in the aftermath of 911. Were those coincidences the imaginative creations of a math genius wanting to boggle the human mind, or just your ordinary run-of the mill superstitious working out of Fate or Destiny?
II. It’s in the man. President Noynoy. It sounds a bit childish. Imagine a nation having a President named Noynoy. There’s guileless simplicity there, a naivete, a folksy ring that can be endearing. The image Noynoy projects is a refreshing diffidence that somehow becomes touching. The most obvious thing one sees in him is a certain laidbackness which can be disappointing for one looking for glamour, sex appeal, charisma that can translate to votes. Noynoy seems zero there because he is such a simple, straightforward individual. But he offers us something much, much more: the Hope of a return to the old political values which our admired presidents in the past embodied and which his mother tried to revive in her time. I call to mind the feisty nationalism and idealism of Quezon and those who immediately followed him in leading our young nation, never mind Marcos and the rest that followed him, with the exception of Cory.
There is no scandal or anomaly attached to Noynoy’s name. As Congressman and Senator, he may have done nothing remarkable that would make him a hero, or a notorious trapo. Maybe he has kept his nose too clean for comfort, making him almost colorless. But what the heck! As a nation, haven’t we had enough of colorful personages like Marcos and Imelda, Erap, even a Villar and a Binay who crowd our TV viewing time with their eternal, drama-laden infomercials which cost so much that they can feed whole towns and barrios? Buti na lang na- withdraw na ni Mar ang kanyang infomercials which were almost bathetic in their comic possibilities. What we have long needed is a quiet, non-grandstanding president who would work tirelessly for the common good because that is his mandate and not because he, from day 1, is already laying the groundwork for staying in power after his/her term of office is over.
The position and job is being thrust upon him by a wearied people. Noynoy did not seek the office, like his mother who answered the nation’s call for a leader 23 years ago in historic Club Filipino, the same place Noynoy chose to make his own announcement of commitment. Since the time of that announcement, Noynoy has attained a bigger, nobler stature, although the shyness or diffidence is still there. He now answers questions with more assurance, being fluent in both English and Filipino, prompting me to conclude: He is his father’s son, after all.
These days, we are reeling from the onslaught of corruption in the form of innumerable dishonest deals and transactions perpetrated by government functionaries both local and national. That is because such high-profile anomalies as the ZTE-NBN Broadband deal, the Fertilizer scam, the $1 million dinner in New York, the multimillion peso houses of the presidential sons in the US, the Jose Pidal accounts, the shameless desire for dynastic power through a Chacha, etc., have not been subjected to the wheels of justice. Not to be excluded from this list are the anomalous additions in the list of National Artist Awards this year. Someone put this naughty thought in my head: that perhaps,just maybe, Guidote-Alvarez and Caparas were included so as to make possible a movie for hammy presidential son Mikey, whose previous attempts at being an actor laid a big fat egg right on his crew-cut head. Oh well. That may just be a shot in the dark for my friend.
But seriously, we pray for good strong cleansing rain to come pouring down on us, this poor beleaguered,confused nation, that we may attain the new beginning that has always eluded us, embodied in a new leader to come out of the 2010 elections. So help us God!