Noynoy! Noynoy! People of all ages shriek and howl his name as they reach out for the now ubiquitous yellow wristbands from a convoy of trucks and sundry vehicles festooned with yellow ribbons that meander through narrow streets. This is now a typical scene—from Tuguegarao to Davao, from Cebu to Albay -- that has marked an extraordinary campaign that is largely people-powered, even as it goes through the mundane and rambunctious rituals of Philippine elections – rallies, caucuses, blaring jingles, and of late, frenzied advertising in mass media.
From a truck on a motorcade or onstage facing a massive crowd, Noynoy cuts a figure that Time magazine describes as “more an abashed computer nerd than the brash, swaggering politician that has become stock-in-trade in the Philippines.” But here is a self-effacing frontrunner drawing the multitudes like a rock star, half-a-century old, son of iconic figures directly tied with Philippine democracy, who only eight months ago was absent from the radar screen of the 2010 presidential race.
As senatorial candidate of the Liberal Party, I am direct witness to the unfolding of a compelling narrative of hope in a political landscape of cynicism and widespread corruption. In engaging people from all walks of life across this vast archipelago, it is hard not to wax lyrical about what it is that we see and experience on the campaign trail. Noynoy, like his mother in 1986, transformed quickly from reluctant candidate to committed warrior, embracing the call of a people with the steadfastness of moral duty.
Noynoy, as he himself claims, is not a messianic leader by any means. But in this critical juncture of a country’s history, he embodies a people’s yearning for decency and honesty in government. Crowds excitedly gather and thicken everywhere he goes, waiting for him to speak, wanting to connect with him or the history of sacrifice for country his family has come to be associated with.
In a body politic grown weary with selfish leaders and corrupted institutions, the elections of 2010 cries out for a return to trust – to leadership “na hindi magnanakaw at magsisinungaling.” Sociologist Randy David says that this central theme of ‘character’ more than ‘competence’ in this year’s elections only reflects the primacy people place on personal qualities of trustworthiness and sincerity because our institutions are weak – or further abused by self-seeking politicians.
Those who scoff at lack of experience or emphasize competence, or deride sentimentalism in politics, perhaps fail to read the public pulse well. Noynoy is where he is at now because he exemplifies what a philosopher once said about transformative leadership: that the one who most deserves to wield power is the one who least seeks or desires it. If there is one thing I am most proud about to be part of Noynoy’s team, it is that he comports himself with “Ghandian simplicity” and inspires with an honesty that shines through even when he speaks before mammoth crowds.
We do not labor under the illusion that in the event Noynoy becomes president the governing part will come easy. A political scientist notes that in a country weighted down by a history of elitism, corruption and social violence, the Philippines is “not hospitable terrain for reformist leaders.” Over the decades public leadership have been characterized by the betrayal of the public trust – by leaders who lust after power and its trappings and resist far-reaching social reforms.
But that is why this campaign returns us to the possibilities yet again for redress and renewal – to our higher selves as Filipinos. President Cory’s death ushered this reawakening and Noynoy’s bearing the torch of EDSA tells us that democracy’s project is our continuing handiwork, owned by no less than the ordinary citizen – and not to be usurped or manipulated by any one in power or by any one institution, least of all the COMELEC.
This country-changing journey is about children like ten-year old Bianca, who despite losing her possessions and family’s home to the ravages of Ondoy, handed her modest savings to Noynoy saying that instead of buying herself new school supplies, she would rather help him win so that he could be in a position to help millions of other children all over the country. It is about scavengers in Payatas who added their ‘piso-piso’ to the pagbabago cans with the earnest plea for leaders to just do their job so that the poor get a fair shake in life.
Across the breadth and length of the country, it is the ordinary folk who are voting for a new lease, for a redrafting of a social contract that simply restores balance and fairness in the running of government. In the spontaneous combustion of people who run up and reach out to Noynoy, the names they shriek and howl are, in the end, their own. In putting a stake in these elections, ordinary Filipinos are voting themselves back to democracy’s center-stage.
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Neric Acosta, LP congressman of Bukidnon from 1998-2007, is professor at the Asian Institute of Management and Ateneo de Manila University and now Liberal Party senatorial candidate.
