Normally, in any upcoming election, the “Anointed One” of the incumbent is a position that is coveted because of the weight of the supposed political influence that the incumbent can bring. It is also, however, a tough spot to be in. If the incumbent was a good one, the pressure is on the chosen one to continue and improve on whatever the outgoing official started. If the incumbent was bad, then it would be easy to perceive his/her chosen one as bad as well.
I’ll leave it up to the readers to decide whether president Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino is a good incumbent or a bad one.
Suffice to say, however, that BS Aquino’s chosen one, Mar Roxas, has had plenty of opportunities to communicate his ideas and offer the voters insight on what things are going to be like if he becomes the next president.
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Things have not gone too well for Mar every time he has opened his mouth. He merely echoes the Daang Matuwid lines that more and more people are getting tired of.
If we were to play Hangman for every time Mar has opened his mouth and said something about current affairs, by now the stick figure would have been completed already. More than once.
The Typhoon Yolanda relief operations, the Mamasapano incident, the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila, proposals to lower income tax rates, the continuation of placing the blame for the country’s problems on former president Gloria Arroyo, and now the ongoing “laglag-bala” (bullet-planting) extortion scheme in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) – the list of Mar Roxas’ verbal gaffes should already be long enough to allow Filipinos to decide whether they want this kind of man as president. And it’s probably going to get longer.
Of course, one can always cry foul about media’s “taking statements out of context”, or issue follow-up and clarification statements, but you really get only one chance to make a great first impression in any situation. No amount of PR can fix awkward statements taken the wrong way; it doesn’t help that the first reaction is usually considered too be the more honest one. That is why it’s important to weigh one’s words carefully before releasing them; they cannot be taken back.
Less talk, less mistake. I guess with Mar, we just have to let the thing speak for itself.
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
i guess you can’t blame mar roxas…he has no mind of his own so all he can do is make gaya-gaya
To Mar Roxas: ” E kung ang gobierno o yung mga natratrabaho sa NAIA , ay naglagay ng mga bala; para maka-hut-hut ng maraming pera. At inutusan mo sila, paano yun?”
Mar Roxas talks like a parrot. He is there resounding the mantra of Aquino and Abaya. This Dude has no mind of his own. His actions and his words glaringly show his incompetence… I wonder, how he graduated in an American college. I have some classmates, who are really dull, in college. But, Mar Roxas , is the worst, that I have seen. He is not just dull…he is also stupid.
Obviously, Mar Roxas is toeing the party line; and, his reasons are a matter of conjecture, or opinion, (depending on one’s perspective). To my mind, he is.. like a player in a losing team who, (illogically), is still ‘shaving points’, or like a dutiful ‘chief mate’ who is willing to go down with his captain and the ship. He may actually be both of these images. He probably knows and accepts the warts and flaws of his friend and superior, even as he appreciates the problems of the country; but like a loyal servant to both, he soldiers on, engaging the ‘boss’ and ‘party’, while trying to mitigate negative results to the country. He might be thinking that loyalty to one’s superior, and service to the country are not mutually exclusive.
Loyalty and service are, indeed, very rare commodities nowadays.The polar opposites..’balimbing’ and ‘kurakot’ are evidently the default inclination of today’s politicians. You wouldn’t strain your eyes to go look for dishonest officials. They are all over the place. You would, though, if you tried to look for honest ones. They are as scarce as tits in a boar hog.
I am not sure that these virtues.. loyalty and service.. will get Mar Roxas very far. It could very well sink him and his ambitions for good. But this might be a price one has to pay if only to prove that some ‘good’ still lingers.
Walang bayag ang mga nasa gobyerno. Kahit anong partido pa yan. Period.
A while back, I also gave Mar some tips to avoid dishing out blatant cuss words in public by using alternatives like:
“Utang ng Ina mo” or “Tang inomin mo” in place of PI.
He seems to be more behaved now so I think he heard me.
Self-doubt is a persuasive mistress; careful not to shag her or you’ll never get your balls back.