Benigno Aquino III Podcast Transcript

Benigno Aquino III, podcast interview transcript, part 1

http://eleksyon2007.inquirer.net/view.php?article=20070226-51739

February 26, 2007

Editor's Note:

What follows is the first part of a preliminary transcript of the Eleksyon2007 podcast interview with senatorial candidateBenigno Aquino III.

JV Rufino :

Welcome to the Election 2007 podcast. Our guest for thispodcast is Congressman Benigno Aquino III. Aquino is running forsenator under the Genuine Opposition Slate.Welcome to the show, Congressman.

Benigno Aquino III :

Thank you for having me.

JV Rufino :

Our first question will be from Maila Ager.

Maila Ager:

Hi sir, this is Maila Ager, covering the House of Representatives. First question is what made you decide to run for theSenate?

Benigno Aquino III :

The Senate is the one of two, I think, remaininginstitutions that have proven an effective check with the excesses thatwe feel the current administration is doing on the Filipino people.The other institution, of course, is [the] Supreme Court--and there willbe even if I don't run a new composition with regards to the Senate forSenate President Franklin Drilon will be ending his term come June 30;and, as you know he has been at the forefront of our party [the LiberalParty-ed] in trying to uphold our democratic principles and ideasduring the spirit of crisis that our country is facing.So, we feel that if we don't put up a fight for that position it mighteven change the effectivity of the Senate as an effective check-and-balance mechanism.

Maila Ager:

Are there expectations from you because...being the son of a former president [Corazon C. Aquino-ed], the son of the late,martyred senator [Benigno Aquino Jr. whose assassination in 1983 ledto the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship-ed], and, you know, fromthe Aquino clan.

Benigno Aquino III :

Not only from the family--everything that we'vedone is assumed to have been a given--but more so from other peoplewho...Others who find themselves--other politicians who findthemselves--in my same situation...there have been several instanceswhen their staffs--their staff rather--have mentioned that you are notan Aquino [and that] you don't have to go to that this extreme of fighting this current regime. And I was saying, is that--should that--bethe case?Am I something special, exceptional or the exceptions to the rule?There should be a fight, given the fact that it's in everybody's interest.Everybody should be participative in this current crisis that ourdemocracy is facing.So in terms of expectations...I have [said] long ago, I will not be able tosurpass what my parents have accomplished, which frees me from thepressures that I would have had in trying to overcome theirachievements, which in turn I think leads to an efficiency in terms of fulfilling my duties at this point in time.I'm not concentrated or concerned with any other factors rather thanjust being able to do the best job that I can. I think I am a combinationalready of both the traits of my parents.My father was...tended to be...Though he wasn't dictatorial, he wassuch a perfect convincer of people that everybody was persuaded as tothe validity of his views. Even though he had decided beforehand on aquestion that he proposed to everybody, at the end of the sessioneverybody felt that they were part and parcel in making that decision.

My mother's style has always been consensus-generating. And I thinkI'm somewhere in the middle of both, trying to get the best traits of both and trying to be even more efficient in terms of championing theadvocacies that I have fought for all this time.Again, I tend to be more--I'd like to be as thoroughly prepared on anysubject, whereas my father seemed to be like, well, not the most intenseexpert of all subject matters, but he gave that impression to anybody.So before I'm more deliberative and perhaps even more--how should Iput it?--I want to be even surer of any position that I take before I starthaving an advocacy, on any particular issues.So there are differences but at the same time there are, very greatsimilarities amongst all of us, especially given the fact that a lot of myperspectives on the world, on this country, on these issues, system of government, were formed due their influences.

Maila Ager:

What took you so long to run for a national post?

Benigno Aquino III :

We had several problems in Tarlac. There are of course also the political mix that has existed from ‘98. The first personwho was convincing me to run for the Senate was former president[Joseph] Estrada. And I told him that being a neophyte congressman,in fact I felt I wasn't ready. Come 2004, like a lot of the populace, wefelt we had--'di ba?--parang choices that were not inspiring.I somehow decided to choose the lesser of evils and I didn't want to bebeholden to a group or a person that I wasn't exactly sure of.Now I feel that with the current crisis, to do otherwise would be to bea traitor to the legacy of my parents and everybody who sacrificed forus to get to this stage, and it is high time that we continue again theeffectivity of the Senate--to be an effective check and balance on theexcesses that are being perpetrated now.

Maila Ager:

So if you get elected in the Senate, how are you going todefine your term?