By: Iris P. Concepcion
I have heard so many comments questioning the ability of the present President to "wear" his position, casting aspersion on his, walking habit for one, and the rest of his wardrobe.
I closed my mouth then since I have not seen nor heard him speak about that time (and I do not care about how he looks: I think he is extremely sassy now. Go to the City Hall and stare at his picture there). I only know about his platforms.
As I am watching his television appearances though, I am quite impressed with the way he delivers his messages done bilingually, both in Filipino and English. He speaks well. Many respected writers who had done one-on-one interviews with him atttest that they are sometimes astounded by his depth.
He explained on how he responded to the flood occurrences. He cited figures like you would talk to an engineer or a plumber. It is that kind of communication that this country requires. Identifying yourself with a leader is a hard knock to throw a punch to but I think his group nailed a pretty neat jab this time: making him sound like an intelligent "pilosopong" Tasyo on the street.
I would credit it not on an instant brush-up imaging. He grew up in a family that encourages that kind of environment. The father is brilliant, and his strength of character came from his mother. I am just saying that his handlers would not have a difficult time worrying about what his mind might look like inside a probing, public microscope. What he is now could not be studied overnight. This man could really deliver because he had lived through that all his life.
I already noticed this when he was maliciously tested during the campaign trail. An anchor blatantly asked him if he is a retard or something to that effect. Without losing his cool, he said a witty reply that shocked the bossy broadcaster and I think he got his point there.
His choices of books, love for music and films are not put-on. There is a kind of natural spontaneity in his interviews (read the 24K Icon special project of Philippine Star) that does not hide. He is not contrived. My apprehension before was: does he have a mind of his own? I am getting my answers clearer everyday. He could invite like-minded people easily because of that. One of his Cabinet secretaries was asked to do something in a time frame and when the interviewer asked him whether or not he followed, the reply was : "I could not say "no" to that order." You can immediately sense that it is conviction that makes them move.
As citizen, I am comfortable with that, of course.
I think this bodes him well. He is as much allergic to falsities of faux and pseudo brilliancy that more often than not, mirror the handlers' thoughts than founded on real, graspable convictions. We have seen these types already breaking out from their cocoons of alleged sanctified and holy grails of truth. We did see that it is their truth, shaped over some brotherhood of myopic cause.
I am just glad this President opened the doors for us to digest all these sides in another angle. I am thankful he is the brother of a media-savvy sister. He does not need tutoring on this. Many officials before might have chosen to close their mouths when blackmails were thrown at them. They might have been crippled by that. Casting away the shroud of silence though, this President is showing another way on how to correctly parry this thing. He even said that he wanted to be criticized to know where he might have committed a mistake.
Don't you get the feeling he is now advised well and the country is the direct recipient to this consensus?
I am thankful that everything just "meshed" in the end.
It simply means one thing. The President does not appear flaky at all, both adept in street lingo and quite understandably, not so smoochy with the shallow embraces of imaging and what not.
He is blessed in that, disparate people of all sizes and shapes, of opposable thumbs and ideological leanings, seem to work together well as they pitch in their shares to make this nation-building truly work. I would like to quote Manny Pangilinan's take on this: the honesty required (to him, both mental and financial honesty must be present i.e., not using company money for other means) is well in place. Based on that anchor, I am not surprised he could talk to people on that level despite the nagging differences.