How Can We Help Our President

by Alex P. Vidal

Who says millionaires don’t cheat? Everyone will be tempted when opportunity presents itself. But not all will be tainted.　

Being rich and unmarried, President P-Noy has no reason to steal. His parents were never known to have dipped their fingers on the cookie jar; they were tempted, yes, but not tainted.

Man’s special dignity lies in goods which no other animal shares with him, as other animals share with him the goods of food, shelter, and even those of sleep and play.

　
OFFICE

After more than 100 days in office, President P-Noy should continue to stand firm on the ideals of the late former Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Jr. and the late former President Corazon "Tita Cory," that sterling legacy that has helped catapult the Aquino clan into political fame — and gave Kris Aquino guts to collect boys (when can this presidential sister nail a real man?) like Hello Kitty toys.

While the President may be immaculate, nobody walks a saint in Malacanang; no public official under the present system can match Caesar’s wife, who was beyond suspicion: they will all be subjected to severe suspicion and scrutiny. Lest we forget, we always stumble on a serpent in every paradise, and a snake in every forest. Public office, where cash is aplenty, is no exception!

SUCCUMB
　

Only when the President succumbs to influence of friends and relatives will he be destroyed like Erap and Gloria. Being born with a silver spoon, the President is deemed to have passed the temptation of covetousness.

If he is a rational person, President P-Noy will no longer hanker for material grandeur. If he has a sanity, he will try not to suffer from the sanity of others—those waiting for the right opportunity to enrich themselves under his administration.

Because of the trust given him by his late parents, the President can’t afford to go against them. A good fruit must come from a good tree.
　

CHARACTER

But we can’t tell the character of the man. As Voltaire had said, we can change institution but not the nature of man whose character can only be transformed by rationality and values — philosophical and spiritual.

As citizens, we are duty bound to help our leader fight not only graft and corruption and poverty, but also the tentacles of mysticism, dogmatism, superstition, and, most of all, ignorance! /MP