Candidates’ cheapness

Churchill Aguilar

THE “word war” between the two leading presidential aspirants Rodrigo Duterte and Mar Roxas perfectly paints the level of political maturity in the country. It is cheaply low. I mean, where else can you find leaders vying for the highest position in a country who are very much willing to settle the score on a fistfight or a duel? Are they trying to say that they are very capable of protecting public interest with just their bare hands? Unsa diay ning Pilipinas, Justice League? Ug sila Superman? Nah, I would rather vote for someone intelligent enough to come up with strategies that would strengthen our national defense and capacitate our people instead of bickering with rival candidates and challenging each other to a square off.

In these trying times when poverty remains a big problem and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, the last thing we want is a leader who power-trips and who ego-trips.

I have been public in my support for Duterte’s presidency being a Mindanaonon and an advocate of federalism myself but I have also seen the clean intentions and the good aspirations of Mar Roxas and his Daang Matuwid. But their word war is so gutter it magnifies their egocentricity and hunger for power. It is so sick and disappointing–politics at its worst.

One prides himself as a graduate of Wharton School of Economics while the other is no less than a lawyer. But their squabbles are so gutter-like they act worse than the uneducated people. One even flaunts how he killed criminals with his bare hands indicating his tendency to put the law into his own and in effect implying he is above it. The other threw his cheapest shot by discrediting the achievement of the opponent in his city and calling it a myth. Can we just focus on issues and platforms?

We are no longer at the time of President Emilio Aguinaldo where disputes are solved through assassinations.  And it is surely not the time to go back to such infant form of governance.

The President of a country should have the highest moral ascendancy. His concern should only be the welfare of the Filipinos not to mention that he needs to be well respected in the international community because whether we like it or not, international economic pacts and agreements are essential in establishing a vibrant country. He should know how to choose his battles and how to behave under pressure; he owes that to the country he is serving.

Mar and Digong should therefore suck up their egos and man up because whether we like it or not, the next president would come from just the two of them. If what they do is part of their political strategy to win, then they should change it, because it is only feeding the “chismis culture” of the masses and are surely not shaping our community for political maturity.

Their “word war” may in a way be entertaining but it is also horrible to think that other than the two, we don’t really have much option. That means either way our next president is cheap.