Are we trying to pick a green young fruit that is still undergoing the yellowing process on its branch too early with our crying for a Noynoy Aquino for President?

Are we just carried away by the sudden flood of sentiments when the Mother of our Democracy Corazon Aquino has gone away ahead of us, and in desperation for change set our eyes instantly to her only son; anointing him with so tall an order of restoring our precious basic right of freedom from the slavery of greed and poverty?

Or are most of us even making the right decision of believing the fairytale woven by some hopeless romantics that Noynoy Aquino is our sudden messiah that will usher us out of the land of Egypt back to the chosen nation of overflowing milk and honey.

Or are we set to make history once again by voting Noynoy Aquino for President?

I have nothing against Noynoy Aquino on a personal level, but all esteem and appreciation for being the son of two of our greatest national leaders and heroes for democracy. Something that he automatically earns from a plundered nation and wailing people who cherish in their hearts the hardwork of his parents. Rather than riding on this political development that has turned on to be a carousel of melodramatic political tide that has swept the imaginations and the fancy of voters, I rather beg to choose the tedious road of wrestling with myself in order to discover the fact and the truth from those that are only fruits of our longing for “instant personal and national gratification.”

There are two waring sides on this story.

The first one trying to believe that Noynoy Aquino is our messiah; the man sent by the heavens to save this nation from unparalleled corruption of the few and the harrowing poverty of many. After the influx of public sentiments and the somewhat rekindling of the Cory Magic during her burial, came the little whispers that soon transformed into a loud cry by some camps pushing for Noynoy Aquino’s candidacy for the Presidency come next year’s national polls.

They say:  Noynoy Aquino is the only public servant who is not corrupted by the “dark side” with a public record devoid of corruption and incriminating scandals he could actually brag about; he is the one plucked by fate to carry on the torch of democracy his parents has fought for and restored to its dignified state; his parents are national heroes; recent events seemingly has conspired to affirm the clamor of the few for him to become our next President; a number of Presidentiables has withdrawn from the presidential race in order to have a unified political front and nation to support Noynoy’s candidacy; Noynoy Aquino is the only political figure who is not overeager for the highest position of the land; and so on and so forth. Ergo, Noynoy Aquino for President.

On the other side of the fence however, are those who try to diffuse this floating feeling. They contend that Noynoy Aquino is too young to become the next President and could settle for the Vice-Presidency instead in order to have enough time to beef up his experience; businessmen are a bit unexcited with him for the reason that he does not have the solid experience in terms of administrative capacity and especially with issues of the economy; Fr. Joe Dizon and his group are very reluctant to throw in their support for Noynoy for not having the solid stand and accomplishments regarding the Comprehensive Land Reform Program (CARP) on his long years of service in the Lower House of Congress and Senate, with it the lingering problem of so many farmers on Hacienda Luisita, that Noynoy’s family the Cojuangco’s owns; that many of us are only being carried away with our emotions on handling this particular political scenario. Ergo, Noynoy Aquino is not our only choice and not the only most qualified person for the Presidency.

Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga and a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee offers a spark of wisdom in the middle of a whirlwind teleserye. He said that it is tragic to see that Filipinos are “always looking for somebody to pin all [their] hopes on and also to blame when these hopes are not realized.”

I am not saying that we should not vote for Noynoy Aquino for President. What I am trying to say is that we should all be cautious and on guard not to fall to the trap of riding the tide and floating feeling when we are to choose for our next president. Neither should we make our desperation for a “sudden change” the barometer on throwing in our support to someone who seems to be and could be our savior. This is the same traditional and patronage politics disguised in a new face.

To this Tony Meloto says:

“We don’t have to look for that one leader to bring our nation to glory. It’s important for us to see that every Filipino can love this country as much… because there’s only one Cory and one Ninoy in our lifetime. But there are millions of us within this lifetime who can love this country as much as they did.”

From my personal eyeglasses I could see that many of us are slowly falling on this bad Filipino trait of throwing in everything, banking on someone believed to be our sudden messiah. There is no sudden messiah. But there is only one me and you who could save ourselves individually.

Noynoy has gone on a spiritual retreat (which I observed the only spiritual retreat with all the cameras flashing for so many photo ops) in order to discern what God really wants for him; maybe we are also forgetting is that we are obviously expecting too much from Noynoy that it is maybe as important is that we all undergo our own personal retreat also for us to choose the right person whom we could call our President.

On which side of the fence are you:  banking on Sen. Noynoy Aquino for President on 2010 or believe that he is not qualified yet and should settle first for the Vice-Presidency?   Aside from Noynoy, who are the other presidentiables you see most qualified and morally upright to become the next President?

Image by DayLife

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