President should be a model

WE don’t entrust the flying of plane or the navigation of a ship to just anybody. We need to have experienced pilots and ship captains who have trained so hard. We don’t even entrust the driving of a car to someone who does not know how to drive or to an alcoholic, gambler and womanizer like Joseph Estrada. We would even require those who want to teach, practice law, medicine or accountancy, construct bridges or enter government service to first have a good education, excel academically, and pass the board or bar exams or the civil service exams. What more for those who want to become president of about 90 million Filipinos?

Should we put someone there who didn’t even show intelligence, prudence and self-discipline way back in high school and college? Should we put someone who didn’t even know about the Separation of Powers legal doctrine, an essential democratic institution that controls and checks the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches? Consider Noynoy Aquino’s undue intervention and pressure in the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona, including his use of DAP or pork barrel funds to influence the Senate vote. Should we put someone who would not even know about balance of payments deficit, or how to control inflation or the rise of prices or to encourage development through fiscal and monetary policies, including controls on interest rates, rediscounting rates by the Central Bank, reserve deposit requirements, etcetera—powers and tasks which the President should exercise? Advisers? Now how would the president decide which is the best advice in the midst of conflicting interests, if he does not know how to discern or does not even know the basics?

For example, the interest of the exporter is much different from that of the importer. The exporter wants more pesos when his mangoes or furniture is bought by the foreign country. He wants a devalued Philippine currency so he gets more pesos for every dollar paid by the foreigner country. He gets more money. On the other hand, the importer wants the value of the peso to go up vis-à-vis the dollar, so that when he buys oil or apple from abroad he would need only a few pesos to obtain the dollar with which he pays the foreign country. He does not like devaluation of the peso. On the contrary, the importer wants the peso to be overvalued. From that alone, we can easily see their conflicting interests, and if one of them gets to be a trusted adviser of an uneducated or ignorant President, he would surely give the advice that supports his economic interests or those of his family or business associates. The public interest could be disregarded or forgotten if the President does not know how to make the balancing act in the midst of conflicting interests.

Another conflict area would be in the matter of importation of products produced abundantly or effectively abroad. There was a time when cement was being imported at 60 pesos per bag from Indonesia. The local cement manufacturers, dominated by foreign ownership, complained. They complained that the cement factories here is losing and would close shop if the importation continues. Many workers would become unemployed. Importation was stopped and the local cement manufacturers increased their prices astronomically, affecting ordinary homeowners trying to build homes of their own.

Now what happens if the President himself, aside from being ignorant or uneducated about economics, has business interests that favor the exportation or importation of products? The problem can get more complicated indeed.

We thus need a president who is not only brilliant, well-educated, experienced, honest, capable of self-sacrifice, but who also possess Solomonic wisdom. And that is really hard to come by. While Mar Roxas is the better candidate, he is not really the best possible candidate. His landed and huge business interests would likely affect him.

The President serves as the driver of the nation. But then, we don’t only have a problem as to who should drive. We also have a problem with the system, with the kind of vehicle being driven. Is the vehicle worn-out or non-functional? Should it be replaced totally or just given minor repairs or given a washover kind of paint? That actually is the crux. The people should answer.

(Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)