The first post on institutions really took it out of me, and part 2 looks like it’ll entail much more research, so I’ll take a bit of a break and talk about why I like Gibo for being so classy. First let me start out by saying I don’t mean classy in the way he dresses or looks (though I know two people at least who are considering voting for him because he’s so “gwapo”), but classy in the way he deals with people and conducts himself in the presidential race.
You’ll notice that most of the mudslinging volleys have nothing to do with Gibo’s camp. Whether it be suspicions of autism or mental depression or whether a candidate was truly poor or used his brother’s death to boost his candidacy, none of this has touched Gibo. One could say this is by virtue of his being a distant fourth in recent polls; since he’s not a threat no one will take potshots at him. But this shouldn’t stop him from joining in the fray by throwing out volleys of his own. Conventional wisdom even suggests that he should do exactly that in order to get on the news and boost his popularity. But the man just refuses to talk shit about anyone. This is part of why I don’t buy that he’s “defending” GMA by refusing to talk smack about her. He’s consistently avoided talking bad about GMA, NoyNoy, Villar, defectors from his party, and all the other presidential candidates. Now I don’t know about you, but I sit back and think “man, that’s something.” That we have a presidential candidate that has managed to stay clean up to this point is a little shocking to be honest. I also like that he doesn’t feel the need to trump up his accomplishments in his years of public service. I’ll admit this is a personality thing, but I just dislike people who are very vocal about their accomplishments and feel the need to point it out all the time; ”Nagbubuhat ng sariling bangko” if you will. All of this makes me feel like he’s just such a classy guy, a statesman, someone who can be firm without having to call people out all the time.
Not to compare him to Obama or anything, but did Obama talk smack about Bush, McCain, Hillary, or even Sarah Palin? I want that to be the norm. I want Philippine politics to be about the platforms. Many people claim the same thing yet they support parties that stoop down to the level of releasing falsified psychological documents. Here’s a guy who hasn’t used the typical song and dance routine, the celebrity endorsers (with the exception of Edu of course), the grandstanding (figurative of course, not literal) that everyone claimed to hate about the circus that is Philippine politics. And yet we penalize him for his political associations. We shun him because he’s in 4th place and don’t want to “waste” our votes.
But you know what? He’s cool with it. I remember in a talk I saw on TV (can’t find the video here) he encouraged people not to simply listen to what he has to say, but to look at the platforms of all the candidates and decide for themselves. He implores people not to simply vote for him, but to educate themselves so they can make empowered decisions for the future of the country. This is why, win or lose, Gibo is the classiest candidate in this race, and i’m positive that he’ll have an impact regardless of the results in May.
Speaking of educating yourselves, have a look/listen to these videos from his talk in UAP.
I especially like how one Lakas party representative had put it – that as an effect of all the “questionable” politicians leaving Lakas (and how Gibo himself has left Lakas as its chairman(?)), that Gibo has transformed from being the candidate of the President, to be being the candidate of the People.
Wooooo! Go Gibo!
I discussed that in my post on being gloria’s lapdog. I have the suspicion that the people leaving or complaining about Lakas are being left out of the loop intentionally as Gibo restructures the party.