Malaya (08.27.09)
“In fact, one ought to think on this: Cory, who ought to have run for President as a Liberal, did not. Doy Laurel, her vice president, was a Nacionalista to the end.”
by Ducky Paredes
Says the Chairman of the Liberals Party: ““The pronounced public clamor for Sen. Noynoy Aquino to run for higher public office as an afterglow of the phenomenal outpouring of love and affection for his parents, Cory and Ninoy Aquino, is a blessing for the LP.”
Yes, but if Noynoy wants to go for the presidency, he is not welcome in the same way that the LP leaders during Ninoy Aquino’s time would not give Ninoy — who had then become the natural leader of the party and was, in fact, the only Liberal of significance, still willing to take on Marcos – any support.
In the present case, the LP had already decided on a Presidential candidate, not in a convention but in a caucus of leaders who chose its own set of officers without the participation of LP local leaders.
In Ninoy’s time, the LP leaders went for a boycott of elections. Ninoy realized that going the boycott way was a dead end. What is a political party if it does not participate in politics and is inactive at all levels in national elections? Thus, he bucked the LP leadership and ran as a Laban – a Liberal in borrowed clothes.
When he came home when he did, among the things that Ninoy wanted was to take over the Liberal Party, which was then divided between the Salonga and Kalaw wings. He felt that for him to be in a position to take over the party, he would have to return from exile ahead of the other LP leaders.
This is not a re-interpretation of history. I was witness to the internecine secret wars between the LP leaders and often noted that an LP leader would have worse things to say about his fellow LP leaders than they had for Marcos, the Dictator. In fact, that turned me off so much that to this day I am unable to think good things about a particular LP leader who has survived them all.
Ninoy, on the other hand, never once spoke badly about the other LP leaders. In fact, he had only kind words and freindship for them.
In fact, one ought to think on this: Cory, who ought to have run for President as a Liberal, did not. Doy Laurel, her vice president, was a Nacionalista to the end.
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Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan says: “FVR is no different from GMA. Was he not the most traveled president before GMA? Did he not have ambitions to change the Constitution during his term? To show sincerity, he should completely cut his ties with GMA.”
According to Ilagan, Ramos’ “reform, perform and transform” warning to Mrs. Arroyo is simply posturing to gain more leverage.
Eddie Ramos was not at all like GMA. Sure, he may have also been a traveling President but never was he traveling at the level of our current “Pinakamahal na Pangulo” in the frequency of his travels; nor did he have a taste for opulence.
Ramos always had a good thing going for himself in that he could take a long look and even poke fun at himself. Eddie was very different from Gloria.
I disagreed with Steady Eddie on many things and brought out these disagreements in my columns. His most effective response (because it would deprive me of sleep) was sending me faxes at three in the morning when I was, of course, still asleep and he had already read my column which he sent it to me with his comments on the margins.
To think that Eddie Ramos wants more leverage is to misjudge the gentleman that he has always been.
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There is a report that. within the same period, a survey firm did simultaneous surveys for two different politicians and had disparate results in the surveys. I am unclear whether these showed that the leader in either survey depended on who was paying the piper but I suppose that these so-called pulse-takings of the public mood are taken with a view of creating news for the particular client and are tailor-made for their purposes.
This makes whatever results come out totally unreliable and could even possibly be close to total fabrications. Thus, of what use are they except to mislead?
Senator Richard Gordon at some time, promised to file a bill that would compel survey firms to reveal who commissioned the surveys when announcing results for purposes of transparency and to avoid mental conditioning.
Said Gordon then: “Survey is a form of manipulation. It makes us think or believe that respondents of these polls represent the voice of the people.”
* * *
It is becoming clearer to Erap as he talks to the different declared and still undeclared opposition Presidential wannabees that his hope for unity among the aspirants who would oppose the administration’s candidate in 2010 has no chance at all. In fact, if the administration opted to select anyone among the present declared “opposition” candidates, they would probably go administration at the drop of a hat.
This is not about reform or change; it is about taking power for one’s self to do with as one pleases. When it comes down to the wire, all pretense at unity will be abandoned and it is each man for himself.
Thus, if anyone in the opposition ranks has any real chance of winning, the choice would have to be Joseph Estrada himself.
* * *
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.” – Adlai Stevenson, 1952
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hvp 08.26.09)
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