A gold chamber pot

SIXTY years ago, the late President Elpidio Quirino was on the ropes in his fight for reelection against Ramon “The Guy” Magsaysay. The forces of the communist insurgency, the Hukbo ng Bayan sa Pagpagpapalaya ng Pilipinas, or the Huks were knocking at the doors of Manila.

Ringing through opposition Nacionalista Party was their anthem and mantra: “Our democracy will die, kung wala si Magsaysay.” This is the same democracy that was lost under President Ferdinand Marcos and was resurrected by President Corazon C. Aquino.

By the way, among the student leaders in the forefront at the time was Art Panganiban, then president of the Student Councils Association of the Philippines (SCAP). One of the Salas boys, Panganiban went on to become Chief Justice. Their leader Rafael Salas left to join the United Nations (UN) and became the first head of the UN Fund for Population Activity. But this was a different story of a different time.

To return to the subject, in the mudslinging so characteristic of the Philippine political campaign, one of the most devastating attacks against the supposed lifestyle of President Quirino was that he used gold chamber pot (urinola).

In the same political vein, the late Manila City Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson, himself a former journalist, attacked the supposed sudden wealth of the late President Carlos P. Garcia by saying that his wife, Mrs. Inday Garcia, wore the metal rings of mosquito nets as earrings; that it was only after she became first lady that she wore real jewelry. Today it is a million-peso dinner in New York and 110-percent increase in wealth over eight years.

After 50 years, President Quirino and President Garcia occupy places of honor in the Pantheon of Philippine Presidents. If history holds true, future generations may remember that while the world reeled before the raging flood of a financial crisis in 2008 we had somebody who plug the proverbial hole in the dike that helped us survive although not unscathed. We may not see it that way now but history will make its judgment in due time.

One thing is sure, after EDSA 1 and EDSA 2, if similar conditions prevailed, another People Power exercise should have worked. But those whose ambitions salivated at the prospect of another EDSA adventure failed to pull another one. And this with better funding and organizers. One can only examine the quality of the banners and placards of contemporary demonstrators to realize this.

Today’s opposition refuses to believe President Gloria Arroyo when she said that there will be elections in 2010 and that she is not running for president, which is prohibited by the constitution. Because by doing so they will lose a convenient straw man and a punching bag upon which to vent their ire and gain media brownie points.

The way Mrs. Arroyo is being pummeled in the media, it is understandable that some would want to get out of the way of being an innocent victim. In the face of all these, fair-minded people may consider the question the lawyer of Mrs. Arroyo asked a press conference about the motives of the owners of media and communications organizations.

There are such things as media creations and creatures—men and matter, both. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. Or why the sea is boiling hot or whether pigs have wings.

The best evidence of these are the millions that are being paid for advertorials, infotainment, and out-and-out advertisements, print and electronic, that politicians indulge in today— abetted, welcomed if not solicited by media organizations. Please note media not journalism organizations.

Considering the situation, one may not say that Secretary Ralph Recto is abandoning President Arroyo by resigning as head of the National Economic and Development Authority. He probably thinks he needs more time for his senatorial campaign than that allowed him by the rules.

Of course, other officials and sympathizers cannot accused of abandoning Mr. Arroyo by supporting a presidential candidate because she is not a candidate herself and will not be a candidate. But the wannabees to her post don’t want to see it that way.

Those running for the Senate, on the other hand, will actually be running at large and will probably have a better argument pleading to be the candidate of the people. And not as a candidate of a political party, a necessary organization in the planning and running of a campaign and to do the yeoman job tasks attendant to a candidacy.

In a personality-driven campaign where media clout crucial, it has even happened that a political party needed a certain candidate more than a candidate needed the political party.

And a gold chamber pot could always come handy. Or an almost a million-peso dinner of the Great White Way.

opinion@manilatimes.net