No More Heroes

“Pity the country that needs heroes.” – Galileo, via Bertolt Brecht.

Gilbert Teodoro is not a hero.  He is not the son of a hero, neither has he overcome unbearable hardships to get to where he is today.  Which is not to say that he hasn’t worked hard to get here, just that his narrative is not quite as captivating as some of the other candidates out there.  It is my abiding opinion that candidates’ stories are their most powerful weapons.  It’s not that people are fools (though some of them are), it’s just human nature to empathize with a stirring, romantic tale.  It is what advertising and sales is built upon, the ability to weave a narrative that makes a customer connect or “buy in” to your product.

Take for example candidate X.  Candidate X is the son of two fallen heroes, one taken by the bullet of an assassin and the other by the ravages of time and disease.  He has hidden in the shadow of his parents’ achievements for decades, quietly toiling in public service.  After consulting with higher powers and mourning the death of his mother, he finally decided to step out of the shadows and claim his birthright; to lead our beleaguered nation out of the darkness and into the light.  Scion of heroes. Successor to our greatest democratic achievement.  He represents all of this, and would save us all in the name of his father and mother.  You couldn’t come up with a more messianic story if you tried.  Hell, even my blood is stirred up when I think about it, and it takes all of my rational might to keep from believing in him.

And what about candidate Y?  Born and raised in one of the poorest sections of the metropolis.  Somehow this enterprising young man managed to escape debilitating poverty and rise above his station in life.  Did he do it by becoming an actor?  Perhaps a sportsman?  No.  He did it by pulling himself up by the bootstraps and starting a real estate empire that wanted to do what the Philippine government never could; give every Filipino a decent roof over their heads.  But that wasn’t enough for him.  He wanted to help people more because he knew just how hard life could be.  Just because he’d made it big didn’t mean that he’d forgotten where he came from, and now he would lead his brethren out of the poverty he once knew.

These are both excellent, compelling narratives.  They galvanize volunteers when they’re out on the streets giving out pamphlets  in the blazing heat (or texting you in the middle of the night).  In comparison, what kind of story does Gibo have?  A solid educational background and landed parents with ties to political clans.  A decent track record that isn’t highlighted by individual success.  An unfortunate connection to one of the most reviled presidents in recent history.  These are not narratives that grip the heartstrings.  And unfortunately Gibo’s team has failed to create a good story for him.  They frame him as Galing and Talino, as the visionary leader that will take us into the future because he’s so damn intelligent (and he is!).  But they forget that our people are still afraid of intelligent visionaries after having been betrayed by one so many decades ago.   By doing so his team has failed to capitalize on what I believe is Gibo’s most defining quality; He doesn’t want to be our hero.

I wrote a few weeks ago that I started this blog for my own edification.  I wanted to clarify in my mind why Gibo was the best candidate for me, so that I could defend my choice to my peers.  As I watched his videos and wrote down my thoughts, I finally realized what it was that I believe will make Gibo the best president we can have in the next 6 years.   He will create an environment in which people can flourish and take care of these problems and in so doing institute lasting solutions that will far outlive him.  Gibo’s campaign should have been all about “us” and never about him.  It should have been about empowerment of the people and not the visionary leadership.  While I believe he possesses both qualities (and I say unabashedly that I almost never believe in anyone or anything), one brings up memories of a still too recent past while the other presents him in the best possible light when compared to the two leading candidates.

Gibo doesn’t want to save us, he wants to create a situation in which we can save ourselves.

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May 5, 2010

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On Being Classy

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.

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April 16, 2010

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On the Importance of Institutions pt 1

There is no one particular video to link with this topic, so I settled on the Maguindanao Massacre.  In this video Gibo is asked about his stance on the Maguindanao massacre and if this would have some reflection on him, a bahid or “stain” if he were elected president.  Gibo’s answer is very telling, in that he has already done what he can to comfort the victims of the families himself and that he now puts his faith in the legal system to do its job.   The most important bit here starts at around 1:00 where Gibo says that he shouldn’t be messing with the evidence or the administration of justice because it will only muddle the waters.  In other words people shouldn’t expect him to take personal charge of the matter and hand down justice from on high.  Many people would see this as a good thing, as justice served quickly, so why would it a bad thing?  Because it undermines the authority of the Judiciary as a separate institution from the Executive branch of government.

Many people see this as a “weakness”.  They like men of action, men that take matters into their own hands, men that make things right because they know it’s the right thing to do; in short, they want a benevolent dictator without even realizing it, and Gibo wants none of this.  Let’s imagine Gibo became president and took matters into his own hands and laid down punishment on the Ampatuans, bypassing the Judiciary.  Not only would this weaken the Judiciary’s image in the eyes of the public but it sets a precedent for other lawmakers and future presidents that it’s ok to do this.  He is setting a precedent by allowing the Judicial system to take its course, and surprisingly enough, he is joined in this by the husband of the slain Genalyn Mangudadatu.  I say surprising because “rido” is common enough in that area of Mindanao that no one would have batted an eyelash if Esmael Mangudadatu had waged war on the suspected killers, the Ampatuans.  What is most surprising, yet underreported, is that for the most part his faith in the justice system has been rewarded.

Gibo’s allegiances were also questioned when the issue of Mikey Arroyo’s stepping up to represent security guards in congress came up.   This misleading article bore the headline “Gibo defends Mikey’s party-list bid”.  But did he really?  Let’s take a quote for the aforementioned article:

Administration presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro on Wednesday defended Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo’s bid as party-list representative.

“Is it legal or not? It’s legal. Wala tayong magagawa (We can’t do anything about it),” Teodoro said when asked to comment about criticisms against Arroyo’s nomination as representative of Ang Galing Pinoy, a party-list group representing security guards.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer said that what the next administration and the next set of lawmakers can do is to revise the party-list law to fix the “flawed”system.

Not sure about ABS-CBN’s writers, but I would have put quotation marks around defended instead of flawed.  If you can read past the bias it’s clear that Gibo is in fact not defending Mikey Arroyo but the legal system as an institution.  He admits that it is wrong (that mikey gets to do this), but not exactly in the way people want.  People want drama.  People want him to rail against the Arroyos and pump his fist in the air and say enough is enough.  Instead he calmly suggests that the flawed system can be fixed by the next set of lawmakers, as they should.  However they may not even need to because security guards were insulted enough with Arroyo’s posturing that they dared him to face them in a forum of security guards.  My gut tells me that Gibo is happy that these people decided to confront Mikey on their own instead of waiting for someone to do it for them because it’s an institution (the forum) taking care of its own without his having to get involved.

This video, which I also used to write the post on taxation, also contains many tidbits about the role of institutions as Gibo sees it.  He discusses the role of a president in creating employment (the president is not an entrepreneur…he is a supervisor) and the importance of giving the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas sufficient independence in order to chart the country through economic waters.

I think this is a good enough length to cite examples about Gibo’s stance on institutions, so in part 2 I’ll try my best to explain why I (and he) think that institutions are important.

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April 16, 2010

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On Being Gloria’s Lapdog

Much ado has been made over Gibo’s being the standard bearer of Lakas-CMD, which happens to be the party of outgoing president GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo).  GMA was also responsible for placing Gibo in a position of power as secretary of the DND (Department of National Defense).  There is also talk about his reticence to prosecute Arroyo after her term expires and his “defense” (I put quotation marks because this article was very misleading in its headline) of Mikey Arroyo’s bid to run as representative of security guards.  Pundits are right in questioning whether or not Gibo will have “Utang ng loob” to people who helped him in his rise to power, and in this video I must admit that Gibo gives a pretty weak defense of himself. He talks about protecting his family name and ultimately ends with “kung magpapakatuta lang ako di na ko tatakbo ng presidente” essentially saying it’s not worth the effort of running for president only to be a lapdog.  He does say that he has “Utang ng loob” but that this is repaid not by being a lapdog but by living up to the expectations that come with the plum of being head of the DND.

In another video, a man questions whether or not Gibo will help the outgoing president if ever there are cases filed against her.  Gibo redeems himself some in his answer, saying that in the first place if he ever did become president everyone’s eyes would be on him, so it would be difficult for him to even try to help her even if he wanted to.  And the second and most important point is that he asks the people present whether or not it was right that he meddles in any cases against the president or any person in the country for that matter?  Again the point he’s making here is about allowing institutions (the judiciary) to do their jobs.  This is an important and recurring theme in all of Gibo’s answers to his questions, and something to keep in mind while watching his videos.

But the bottom line is that he never goes out and speaks against Arroyo, and that rubs some people the wrong way.  Sure it’s a little frustrating, and one is tempted to tell him to “go big or go home”, just take aim at Arroyo and let the chips fall where they may.  But Gibo has never shown any tendency to use bad PR against people.  He’s just classy that way.  You’ll notice that most of the mudslinging is coming from the two “leading” party candidates, NoyNoy and Villar (some would argue because they have the most to lose) with nary a peep from Gibo or his party.  So I’m going to go ahead and make the assumption that this is just not the way Gibo plays; he sees no point in pointing fingers.

I also find it difficult to understand why people cannot grasp the idea of working with or for someone you hate.  We’ve all experienced that at one point or another right? Government administration is a job like any other, and some would argue that it comes with more than its fair share of douchebags.  Now say you were a government executive given the chance to do some good, but you had a boss that was “evil”, would you say no based on principle and simply let people rot whom you could have helped?  or would you  suck it up and do what you could despite having said evil boss (while waiting for a promotion)?  Which is the greater good is up to each individual to decide, but it’s obvious what Gibo chose.

What follows is baseless speculation and rumormongering, so please take it with a grain of salt or three. There’s the rumors of Villarroyo, and of Arroyo instructing Lakas party members to abandon ship.  There’s also news that Speaker Prospero Nograles is planning to switch to the NP as well, and the furious and contradictory statements he was giving to the media.  My suspicion is that Gibo is organizing his people the way he wants to and leaving the old guard (like Nograles) out of the loop.  Whether or not the Villaroyo scheme is true he must have had information that Nograles was planning to jump ship and simply worked around him.  When Nograles threw his little hissy fit Gibo calmly said that he’d never been supportive of Gibo’s campaign anyway, and if he wanted to leave the party he was free to do so.

In the end I will admit that there is no way to prove that Gibo won’t be swayed by Arroyo or that he is compromised somehow.  But ask yourselves this: Do you really believe that your candidates aren’t compromised?  That they won’t have to pay back favors?  Huge amounts of money are being channeled through the two leading parties, and that money has to be made back somehow.  At the very least Gibo has never had any allegations of corruption leveled against him, which isn’t something many people in public service can say.

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April 16, 2010

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On Reforming Tax Law

The question posed to him in this video was one on employment, but throughout his explanation there was a veritable goldmine of information that made it hard for me to figure out what exactly this particular post was going to be about.  I settle on Tax laws, but I will be referring to this particular video many more times in other posts.

So why does tax law excite me so much?  Because I’ve been nurturing an idea for the longest time about how to streamline tax laws, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Gibo shares my thoughts.  At about 2:40 into the video, Gibo asks people if any of them properly understood their tax income forms.  I can’t see the reaction of the audience but I’ll tell you that I never had a clue what was going on when I was being taxed every month until I did some research into the matter on the BIR website.  His point is that our income tax laws are needlessly complicated and that they’re ridiculously high when compared to our neighbors.  As a comparison based on ASEAN numbers in Thailand when you make from 0-100,000 baht (1 baht = around 1.4 pesos) income tax is 5% while if I remember correctly (the BIR website is being slow) there’s already a 10% withholding tax on anything below 10,000 pesos.  The result of this is that, similar to corruption, this give people more of an incentive to to find loopholes instead of just paying taxes.

So what’s Gibo’s solution?  Certainly not to lower income tax right away since as he’s admitted the government needs a larger budget.  His solution would be to do research on the tax situation here and figure out a long term plan on lowering income taxes while at the same time (and this is the most important part) increasing consumption taxes like VAT (and Gordon’s text tax).  Now before you go berserk and tell me I’m insane for encouraging someone to tax us more here is why it’s an idea that works on multiple levels:

1. The cost of collecting specific taxes like income, estate, business, etc. taxes are far larger than the cost of income tax (savings for the government)
2. Streamlining the tax collection process means that there will be less chances for petty corruption
3. Having a lowered income tax means that people will have more money to spend on things, which means giving our local economy a badly needed boost

Of course a fine balance must be struck here, and the math needs to work out in a way that ensures the overall result will be beneficial to the country, especially to those most in need.  But out of the box ideas like this are the type that inspire me to follow someone.

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April 15, 2010

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On Improving Education

This is a subject that’s dear to many many as it’s seen as the lynch-pin of  economic prosperity in both the micro (improving the quality of life of lower income families) and macro (increasing foreign investment, GNP, GDP, etc.).  The question asked Gibo is that many people prior to him have promised increases in education spending but have failed to deliver, so what is his guarantee or his plan of action for education?

In typical fashion Gibo launches into an explanation of the issues as he sees it. His first point is that we have the need to improve the standard of our education, in terms of both quality and length.  He makes a fair argument that if at 2 years old Chinese children are being taught to speak English and use computers we should be doing the same.  He also makes a big emphasis on teaching children during these formative years because they are important (shame he didn’t explain why though).   His second point focuses on the budget, asking where the money that people demand for education ahould come from?  Should it come from Health care? Agriculture? Perhaps the military?  His point being that we cannot afford to simply zero in on one factor as the solution to all of our nation’s ills, since we’re lacking on so many levels.  His suggestions on lessening corruption would probably help, and he seems like the kind of person who would support a good idea like Gordon’s text tax for education since he’s said that he is in favor of higher consumption taxes.  Lastly for tertiary education he wants to promote a viable student loan supervised by the SSS that is accessible to both middle and lower income students that should only be paid once they have steady jobs.

My takeaway from this is that Gibo feels there’s no point simply throwing money at the problem.  His is a multi step solution.  We have to take a hard look at the curriculum and check to see if it’s still teaching our children that things that they need in order to be productive members of society.  Then we find out where we’re going to get the money to implement these reforms, then finally offer financial support to people in order to maximize the returns on those reforms.  I find this a much more satisfying answer than just saying “bigger budget for education! Vote me!”

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April 15, 2010

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On a Solution for Corruption

This is a sensitive topic, mostly because of the generally held belief that corruption is the cause of all our nation’s ills, and we cannot succeed unless we stamp it out.  I will admit I used to be in this camp, but after a few years of digging deeper (and fact checking via the internet) I’m of the opinion that corruption is (obviously) a bad thing, but that other countries have managed to be successful despite corruption.  As a reference (using transparency international’s corruption index and the IMF GDP per capita index) Belarus and the Philippines have the same level of (perceived) corruption (2.4 on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is corrupt and 10 is not corrupt) and yet Belarus has a GDP per capita that is almost four times our own.  This an extreme example of course, but helps to prove my point.

In any case, corruption remains a popular topic of discussion, and many candidates over the years have promised to stamp it out.  Even Erap promised “walang pamilya, walang kaibigan…” and look where that got us.  Because of this I find it hard to stomach anyone whose platform constitutes “getting rid” of corruption without really mentioning how.  The general premise is that we’re too soft on criminals, and that once we go down hard on lawbreakers everything will be fine.  That’s all well and good but no president so far has proven to have the gumption for this, and indeed I am morbidly curious as to how far the shit will hit the fan if anyone even really tried to dislodge these people with vested interests; the bloodbath would be horrendous.  One candidate even mentioned that his main goal upon becoming president would be to catch a corrupt official within a month (or was it year, forgive me if I misquote) of his presidency.  Good for him, but can he catch ‘em all?  And if he does, what happens when his 6 years are up?

Gibo has a different solution, one that is espoused by the Singaporean government; reward people who do a good job in governance.  It’s not a ridiculous idea, indeed many of you must have some sort of incentive schemes where you work.  In my old job we were promised an extra 100 pesos a day if we got in before 8AM.  I consistently came in before 8 mostly because I liked avoiding rush hour traffic but the 100 peso bonus was a nice little incentive as well.  Gibo suggests a similar thing for government employees (take note that employees means the president and the chain of command as well).  He gives the example of a government employee that somehow manages to save the country a billion pesos.  Is he rewarded for it? No.  Now if instead of saving the government a billion pesos and instead taking a 10 peso bribe (theoretically, though of course the sums involved are much larger) what happens?  He is punished and castigated by his peers and by society for being a crook.  Gibo argues that this is a deficiency in the Philippine population, the tendency to call a spade a spade and refuse to see anything in grey, despite the fact that life is hardly ever black and white.  We hold our public officials to the highest standards but fail to reward them when they do good.  His carrot and stick solution would seek to balance the punishment of bad behavior with rewards for good behavior, ideally creating an atmosphere where it is seen as advantageous (or even at the very least an acceptable alternative) to not be corrupt.

I should note that this is one of the videos in which Gibo speaks about the importance of institutions.  This is very important, as the idea of strong institutions is pervasive in Gibo’s platform of good governance, but this is something I’ll try to tackle in another post.

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April 13, 2010

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On Peace and Order in Mindanao

Gibo starts off this question by nearly upending my reason for picking him (that he doesn’t believe in simple solutions) and saying that there is one simple thing that is necessary to solve the problem of mindanao : peace and order.   He asks the crowd, how can Mindanao expect progress when people in neighborhoods are armed and resolve their differences by shooting at each other?  He also seems to take issue with a top-down solution to Mindanao (perhaps pointing out the failures of the ARMM government so far) and criticizes politicians who paint the picture that the problems in Mindanao are a Muslim versus Christian problem.  In his view every person (Christian, muslim, etc) from Mindanao is part of the problem but they can also be part of the solution by choosing to resolve their differences in a democratic manner instead of shooting at each other.

Gibo admits this is difficult, and that the government’s job in this matter is to ensure that there is stability in the region in order to allow the people of Mindanao the freedom to discuss and solve their problems.  His solution is to create an environment in which Mindanaoans can help themselves.  He understands that it is a long term process, and that quick fix solutions are not the answer.  This is where he redeems himself a bit, because ultimately his solution really isn’t so simple as to send the entire army out to crush the abu sayyaf.  He realizes that quick fix solutions like that never really solve anything.  As a case in point, he cites that there is peace and order in Maguindanao right now because a thousand policemen and 8 battalions of troops are there in order to keep the peace, but when another crisis arises somewhere in the country these troops will be pulled out and the cycle will start over once again.

To reiterate, his solution for Mindanao is a) create an environment of peace and order in Mindanao, so that b) people in Mindanao can sort out their problems.  What this reveals to me is a man that not only respects the rights of every human being to live in an environment of peace and order, but one who also respects the people’s capability to solve their own problems.  He is not a tyrant that will impose his (either benevolent or malicious) will on the people of Mindanao, he recognizes them as his equals, and wants to give them a chance to prove themselves.  I respect this because it is so easy to be disappointed in people, and to want to take things into your own hands.  I “lead” a small organization myself, and I must admit there are times when I am disappointed with the people I work with, and I have to fight the urge to just do things myself and not entrust them to people.  I’d like to think that perhaps sometimes he hates people too, and he silently curses under his breath at the morons he has to deal with everyday. But the patriot in him still believes that the people are the key to the problem so it’s his job to enable them as best as he can.

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April 13, 2010

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