PNoy’s bets?

Batas Mauricio

MY radio partner Vic Somintac has an interesting theory about the three frontunning presidential candidates in 2016––Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe and former Secretary Manuel Roxas II. He says they are all actually candidates of President Aquino!

Somintac is the Malacanang reporter of Eagle Broadcasting Corp., the owner of Radyo Agila, and he has been a reporter all his professional life ever since he graduated from college, covering the most important beats, so that he is totally qualified to make assessments of the political realities in the Philippines today.

And so, we have to listen to him when he says that Binay, Poe and Roxas, although not necessarily in that order, are in reality candidates of President Aquino. Somintac gave enlightening justifications for his view, and let’s read them one by one.

First, Somintac argues, Roxas was the publicly “anointed” candidate of the President, whose choice was announced in a big gathering of Liberal Party (LP) stalwarts in Club Filipino.

This choice of Roxas by Aquino was expected by everyone, especially because of Roxas’ giving way to Aquino in 2010, and because of Roxas’ dogged loyalty to Aquino from that time until the present.

Because of this, if and when, by some quirk of fate or by human subterfuge, Roxas is able to grab the presidency in 2016 despite his very low survey ratings, it is a foregone conclusion that Aquino is not going to be prosecuted nor jailed by Roxas, for perceived anomalies during his “tuwid na daan” six-year governance.

The same thing is seen by Somintac as far as Poe is concerned. It is clear that Poe holds Aquino in high esteem, clearly recognizing a “debt of gratitude” in his favor, for his having allowed her to run and then win as the number one senator in 2013 under LP. Like her refusal to “attack” Aquino in her campaign for the presidency, Poe is also expected not to prosecute or jail Aquino if she wins.

Binay is not going to be different, Somintac’s analysis showed. Notwithstanding the perceived falling out between Aquino and Binay which allowed the erstwhile Makati City leader to be lambasting the government at this point in his campaign, Binay is expected to respect the same “debt of gratitude” in favor of Aquino.

This arises from the undeniable truth that Binay would be absolutely nothing now, if it were not for the generosity of Cory Aquino, the President’s mothers, who, from obscurity, installed him as Makati mayor in 1986 after she assumed power in the aftermath of the Edsa I Revolution. Clearly, Aquino is going to escape the fate that had befallen Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo, Somintac says.
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Today, I yield to the greatest book of all time—the Holy Bible—in imparting a very important message about true love, which is what the world needs now, as the popular song says. This message comes from 1 Corinthians 13. Really, the time has come for all of us to really pay attention to what God is telling us through His Book, the Bible. Here is what 1 Corinthians 13 says about love: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

“When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love…”
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Perhaps, those who are running businesses and companies which are profit-oriented can learn a thing or two on how to become truly successful, from an Internet posting coming from Melcor Virata of the e-group of the UP Sigma Rho Fraternity, which is aptly entitled: “Scriptures for Business Owners”.

Here are some of them, with the Biblical verses highlighted for emphasis: “Leviticus 19:13: You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.

“Deuteronomy 25:13-15: You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

“Job 31:13-14: If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves when they filed a complaint against me, what then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him?

“Psalm 112:5: It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice; Proverbs 10:4: Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich; Proverbs 11:1: A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.

“Proverbs 13:4: The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat; Proverbs 13:11: Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labor increases it; Proverbs 16:8: Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.

“Proverbs 22:16: He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself or who gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. Jeremiah 22:13: Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and his upper rooms without justice, who uses his neighbor’s services without pay and does not give him his wages.

“Malachi 3:5: Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts….”

Let me add one more verse to what Melcor Virata posted, which is one of my favorite verses on wealth: “Deuteronomy 8:18: Do not forget the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the power to acquire wealth.”