A FIGHT TO THE FINISH: How I Read the President’s Mind By Dr. Avelino L. Zapanta I rooted for PNoy. I voted for him. I still am for him despite the great doubts that have been heaped upon his person ever since the DAP anomaly blew wide open. When I voted for him, this is how I read what was running through his head: “I cannot bear the thought of my parents’ legacy going to waste. I shall run for President and sustain that legacy of honesty and integrity in public service. “I will serve the people faithfully. I will not burden them anymore with taxes and levies except for the ultra rich ones. I will not steal and enrich myself in office. “I shall be selfless to the point of sacrificing my soul just so I can bring about a meaningful change and lead the country to the ‘daang matuwid’.” One thing I did not read in his mind was that he would be honest and lily white in the pursuit of the above. He apparently knew from the beginning it would not be easy. The path would be strewn with obstacles and he would need to maneuver, and to compromise to get to where he wanted to go. He apparently knew that if he did not, his six years in the Presidency would yield nothing substantially good for the people. He apparently realized that the means he would employ might not be so right, would appear ruthless to many, but he did not care as he has to achieve the lofty end in his dream for change. And he found the path to meaningful change truly littered with rocks, mucks, dirt that have to be shoved away to create a clean, straight path. He had to be ruthless at times banging at the formidable obstacles – the remnants of the nine years of wasted Arroyo administration and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court upon which that Administration was anchored. If at the outset those formidable obstacles would not be done away with he would not be able to move on. He had to compromise with Congress or perhaps the devil himself to achieve closure to these. On the economic path, he found the country mired in the depths of unproductivity and inefficiency to a point that it hardly grew during his first year in office. Critics were wagging their tongues saying government was not spending enough to perk up industry and commerce and create jobs and trigger the multipliers towards a robust economy. But there was not enough money in the appropriations and much of it was for payment of foreign debts of which the country was mired up to its neck. They had to scrutinize the appropriations, find where great sums were unrealistically apportioned without chances of being disbursed and declared those as savings and reallocated to realistic and urgent ones that would help perk the economy. Big sums from the Malampaya fund was also tapped to buy new boats for the Navy and aircraft for the air force because China was threatening our islets and shoals in the West Philippine Sea said to be rich in oil deposit that in the future would help the country. And for the first time since the Philippine military slumped from being the mightiest in this part of the world since the 1950s we finally were able to order armaments to provide a semblance of capability in the defense of the country. Still puny in size and firepower but at least something to rely on when push comes to shove and the enemy truly launch open invasion, which already is happening now. PNoy knows he had pushed his cabinet to do near impossible missions under heavily constrained environment and meager resources and employing tactics that border on illegalities. Now they are under heavy attack from those positioning for 2016 and from some cause-oriented groups whose motives are at best suspect. They call for heads to roll. But PNoy is one leader who will not sacrifice his men to remain on top. He would go down with them, if need be, like the brave 300 in Thermopylae. So now PNoy has come to the near denouement of his term. There are only two years left to finish the job. The pandemonium of the election of 2016 has already begun and it is going to become noisier and meaner as the end approaches. What to do to achieve more meaningful results in the last two years? Should he just coast along and become a lame duck as members of his team jumped his proverbial “banyera” to join the opposition and other interest groups? It is a fight to the finish, dead or alive. He had to stay alive up to the last moment still achieving good results for the country. He had to show he is the leader, and the greatest ploy is to be the leader not only up to 2016 but beyond. And because there is a little possibility for it, enough to create uncertainties and doubts on the part of everyone, he remains to be the man to beat, to be focused on, the man on top who calls the shot and not a lame duck as many haters would expect. Eat his dust because he will not waver. He will be steadfast in achieving and keep the enemy guessing on his real motives. He has after all already demonstrated how strong he is, how focused, how hard-headed, thick-skulled the enemies would not be able to break up and would confound them to the last day of his term. A decade or two from now he would be recorded in Philippine history as the President who broke the fall to Hell for the country and brought the change to make it soar again as a great economy in the community of nations.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 11:45:50 +0000
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