The Supreme Court many years back resolved to overturn a murderer's conviction s

o the Filipino people may benefit from his displayed brilliance and, unwittingly
in the process, inflicted on us a Marcos who later on ruled in and with his "th
rone of bayonets" via martial rule he imposed (under very legal pretexts). This
went on and on even if after he had supposedly lifted martial law. And went up t
o the time that Divine Providence finally decided to transfer the mandate of hea
ven to one inexperienced housewife who, however, had the heart to see to the nur
turing of what should really redound to the common good.
It really was an impossible task that was assumed by her. What with all the inst
itutions of a functioning and self-perpetuating republic damaged and nearly beyo
nd repair and almost wholly manned by people who had earlier on decided to play
the strongman Marcos' game of being in with his clique to ensure personal gain - albeit at the expense of the rest of humanity in this coner of the world.
But by painstaking effort, she met with some success notwithstanding all the cou
p plots to wrest authority from her by force and which fortunately did not succe
ed. She was able to see to it that she was succeeded by one considered by many t
o be twice a hero (both from his pivotal role at EDSA in '86 and subsequent succ
essful defense of constituted authority in several coup attempts).
But of course, her successor is simply a great man and not a superman as every F
ilipino would seem to want for their leader. Therefore, he could not magically e
nd the widespread poverty and unemployment in a country he and his predecessor i
nherited as being the basket case of Asia and that later was exacerbated even fu
rther by the Asian Financial crisis that also hit the country during his watch.
Mistaking movie hype as reality, we replaced him with an actor who, fortunately,
had hands on experience in government despite his fantasyland ties. From all in
dications, my own assessment is that he served well the people by well thought o
ut decisions. However, forces beyond his control -- helped no doubt by what I co
uld not help but see as treason from his AFP chief of staff -- cut short his ser
vice to his country. His constitutional spare tire came to power. Which might ha
ve been a good thing had she not decided to ensure staying on after completing t
he deposed leader's term of office by buying the loyalties of people who matter
to her ambition with all sorts of government largesse and contracts -- the large
portion of which appeared to have vanished and to have ended up somewhere to li
ne the pockets of favored ones.
And so, notwithstanding all the bright talents harnessed into government service
, actual economic development came in quite small trickles. We remained the bask
et case of Asia. But we must simply be quite fortunate to find help when we leas
t expected it. For by the time that our second female president's term was about
to end, that of our first female president's life came to an end. And suddenly
with that period of sorrow, we remembered how good it was to think not just of o
urselves but of the rest of our brothers as well. Suddenly, we re-experienced th
at which we had experienced at EDSA. The joy of making sure we all became our br
others' keeper.
With the graciousness of a Mar Roxas, a real technocrat whose skills were acknow
ledged not only by the sitting president but her predecessors as well, who put i
nto the backburner his bid for the presidency in favor of a Noynoy Aquino son of
the deceased beloved Cory Aquino -- we again had an Aquino president. Quite hap
pily, many who did not actually vote for him (myself inluded) became happily sur
prised at all the decisions he made for the common good. He literally was able t
o show how, no matter how limited government resources were, when put to proper
use and not pilfered away in bulk by corruption in government can actually keep
the economy move to generate more employment for many.
Who could deny how next to impossible is it to come out as the economic darling
of Asia from that of being its basket case in so short a time? From all indicati
ons, we have done well with ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things w
ith proper leadership -- not of supermen but real down to earth people who quiet
ly and steadily work for the common good -- without hype whatsoever.
And so, here's hoping that Filipinos would again choose not perceived superheros
but honest to goodness men who time and time again in the past have proven them
selves to quietly and persistently work for the common good.

The lesson of our history is that the good of the first Aquino presidency was mu
ltiplied perhaps ten-fold by the second one.
Therefore, I am confident that the second Roxas presidency would have the good o
f the first one also multiplied ten-fold. You will recall that the first Roxas p
resident was the one who tried his best to heal us from the wounds of the second
world war. Let us enable a second Roxas presidency heal the wounds of our marti
al law years and EDSA people power conflicts. Let us not be beguiled by the char
isma of ambition readily discernible in a Poe, Miriam, or Binay.
And if Duterte is a real patriot, I really would like to see him back down from
his bid and support instead a Mar Roxas whose mindset, background and demonstrat
ed past accomplishment speak of making no attempts at simplistic shortcuts nor a
ttempts to substitute words and catch -phrases for actual effective action.
To all my friends, here's to hope that notwithstanding a repeat of the Supreme C
ourt to give us the choice of another suspected of being somebody's bastard prog
eny to be our president again, we do not fall into the trap of being mesmerized
by self-serving ambition hidden by apparent charisma and name-recall of the movi
e star who raised her up.
Come, let us repeat not a self-grandiose Marcos but a self-effacing Roxas who ce
rtainly has been always bent on, silently and selflessly, doing what really redo
unds to the common good.
If it makes it difficult to see with our intellect the gem that is there in the
character of Manuel Roxas, then let us use our hearts to see how totally differe
nt he is from the rest who also aspire for the presidency. Surely you'll only fi
nd in him decency and sincerity along with the hands on experience and proven ca
pacity to run a country. He is real. His is reality. The rest, to my mind, merel
y theatrics full of sound and fury signifying nothing. And, of course, the dange
r of a Marcosian type rule can never be ruled out in a candidate prone to shortc
uts or tries to buy his/her way in fron resources of questionable origin or simp
ly exploits the opportunity seen open to their taking -- deserved or not.
Let us continue seeing things set right. Let us put at the helm a Roxas and all
the rest who embody his ideals.