A frantic search for viable candidates

By: Manny Valdehuesa

WHAT a lousy fix our society is in today. No statesmen on sight. No inspiring voice. No one to inspire or lift the hopes of a generation in search of heroes and role models. No one to shine a light at the end of the tunnel.

Whence came the likes of Ninoy Aquino, Raul Manglapus, Jose Diokno, Emmanuel Pelaez, Jovito Salonga, Lorenzo Tanada, Claro Recto, and so on? Can a nation’s well of nationalism or patriotism run dry?

As for good governance, there’s no serious party system in operation; no party bothering to hold a nominating convention, not even to evolve a platform we can take seriously. Is anyone concerned about the poor state of our political system?

How about our destiny as a people? Is PNoy’s vague notion of Daang Matuwid all we have for road map? How can we hack it with just a poor collection of traditional politicians—trapos, uninspiring, off-putting, tiresome people that hardly offer a decent menu from which to choose leaders for a Republic of 100 million Filipinos?

There’s not likely to be a constitutional amendment to allow PNoy to run for re-election; so for the Liberal Party, holding out for him is out of the question.

As for the Nacionalistas, today a poor, decrepit shadow of its glory days—what does it stand for except as a vehicle of convenience for some wealthy oligarch with no particular imprint to make a mark on our political system?

There’s the so-called United Nationalist Alliance: alliance for what, plunder?—as in what Erap was jailed for, or Juan Ponce Enrile now also jailed, or Jojo Binay who seems headed similarly?

Jojo Binay’s vaunted rating earlier on as frontunner in the presidential sweepstakes is fast eroding, the outlook for his candidacy dimming. It looks like his so-called UNA will be kulelat, last, with no one in reserve if he self-destructs.