By: Iris P. Concepcion
Conrado de Quiros of the Philippine Daily Inquirer had been asked:
Do you think Noynoy Aquino can really stop corruption?
His reply was: "I am hopeful he can."
He wrote further: "There are a number of things to bolster that hope, though in a qualified way. One, as I kept saying during the campaign, he is not beholden to the usual suspects who invest in elections and demand payback afterward. His campaign was a real people's campaign for the most part, soaring on the wings of volunteer work, or worked off the backs of people who did what they did simply because they believed in it. But who have gone on not just without pay but without recognition, the credit for their work being stolen by those who got paid handsomely, who bungled the campaign (they dropped EDSA as the campaign theme, sending Noynoy into a tailspin; the volunteers kept faith with it), and who believe now they deserve to be punished by being given the choicest positions in government."
And on another note: "That is not to speak of the people in that campaign who have been stealing credit for the work of others, which is a worse sort of theft.You steal credit today, you'll steal cash tomorrow. If indeed you haven't done so already."
The least of my concerns is the incoming President's smoking habit. Let us not be coy here: along the annals of our government chambers come these types. I would only mind if it gets in the way of how they dispensed with their official functions. A lot of people there smoke and puff in the hallways to ease their tensions. I am just glad he came right off the bat saying he shall try to curb down the habit. Previous executives did so in full view of the public. If that is admitted publicly, that means he could also be depended to be forthright on other things, say, like admitting he did not choke a woman in a car just because he got drunk over a seedy habitue one night.
As I see it, people are severely testing his resolve on things.
Some of the very supportive groups who can go beyond themselves to protect the country (they worked hard; never absented themselves from office work; conceptualized things on a daily basis like the country is very ill and needs to get resuscitated; planted the barren lands to improve soil productivity; resisted the lure of rest abroad for free since more projects need to get done) could not bemoan the absence of well-meaning people who are with this vision, this working concept of vitality from within.
I guess it just wouldn't stop there. Next thing you know, they'd be picking on his clothes (they questioned his mental state once and it backfired; he still emerged number one: sensibility won over hoax), his hairstyle, his toes, his elbows.
On the flipside of these nitpickers though, you chance upon disciplined people who extend themselves to help, reach out, communicate, even if it takes a lifetime to get through the wire, not to vilify, but to get across the message that good work is a struggle in itself. A united people is important to push for the 21st century reforms required at this point.
Even if they are hindered along the way, you just know they can be depended on when crunch time comes.
Heroes arrive in all forms and sizes; in ubiquitous clothes; in unusual nook and cranny of our society, in solemn faces, treading the untrekkable, on previous paths not taken.
Often, I ask myself, as people taunt me that I am in limbo, or attempt to discredit me by wrongful, indirect threats to weaken my confidence (had been sprayed on perfume with awful smell that could make you numb--inside a moviehouse no less: the woman must have been so ticked off by the very candid reel we were viewing) that I found myself asking: What if these people allot this slothy anger into something productive like offering their options of productivity to the workers, and take it from there?
Can they be depended on without getting paid, or being cut off from their usual, steady supply of mistresses? Are they capable of doing that? Believe me, I have encountered people who had made these ultimate sacrifices upclose and personal and I keep the belief that they truly, genuinely, can.
When I am in doubt though, ideas start pouring in, guiding me to the right path, admonishing me that people do pick you up where you had slacked off.
I have found myself in that kind of environment several times. Incredible as it may sound, it even comes inside your house like some lost suckling potpourri. And you give your own inputs to prove your point in the most productive way, least they accuse you of being selfish despite hounding you eternally.
As I close my eyes though, all these wonderful, funny creatures start breaking the walls to hound them back as if to declare: peckered bird is soaring, you can't do anything about it. What's the cost of setting it all free anyway? Just an act of grace and acceptance.
And a chance for this nation to be greater than what it is capable of being.