At the turn of the 20th century in the story of Philippine history, the first republic in all of Asia was established. We all know the text-book facts about it. That of the myriad of heroes that led our country’s attempt at independence and self-governance; that of the spirit of revolution passing down from the poems of Balagtas to the novels of Rizal to the bolo of Bonifacio, and finally, to the perfidy of Aguinaldo. The latter is what this article is related to—the perfidiousness of the presidents of the Filipinos. This will attempt to answer, in light of history, why Senator Richard Gordon should be the next president of the Philippines.

      To justify my use of history as the reason why I support Gordon’s candidacy, I turn you to Apolinario Mabini, in his memoirs he said, “In fine…the revolution failed because it was ill-directed; because its leaders won power not by meritorious [deeds] but by irrepressible acts… May we never forget the lessons of history.” Capitalizing on this illuminating statement, we can glean that the roots of the present government and politics were that of malice, mischief, money, and murder. These were how our leaders got the top positions of power. History should never be an automatic determiner of a leader, but it should likewise not be neglected in choosing one. For it is not enough that one is the son of our history’s famous couple, we have already proven that with the daughter of a former president. A leader should be just that, a leader. To choose our country’s next president, we must lay down some basic criteria of leadership and not criteria of personality.

      I set three criteria which are fundamental in choosing a leader, and then later we will try to test the candidates for presidency using the same. The first criterion is from Senator Chiz Escudero—a leader must want to be a leader, not persuaded to be one. The second criterion is from Ramon Magsaysay—a leader should be a genuine model of solid honesty and integrity in government; and the last criterion is from a much known maxim to all—show me who your friends are and I’ll show you who you are. I shall now test Gordon based on these criteria and in the process test some candidates as well. I shall warn you that I will be committing a sort of a straw man fallacy in order to negate the other arguments, vis-à-vis, presidentiables, for I think there is no better and more expedient way to push my own argument on this matter. Our rule is rather simplistic but holistic: if one fails on one criterion, he fails the test.

      Let’s begin with survey-topping candidates. Aquino failed criterion 1. He wasn’t supposed to run, he didn’t like to run, but he went to seek counsel, with his people, with the Carmelites, then after realizing he topped the surveys by a big margin; nothing to lose, everyone to blame if he will not make it to the Office, he declared his candidacy “to continue the fight.” So Aquino, no matter how he may be popular, he failed in our test. Let’s proceed with the second man, Villar. He was head-on from the very beginning, his career has long been aimed at the Office—since that fateful day when he banged his gavel that set the wheels rolling and trampled Erap. So he passed criterion 1. However, criterion 2 is too much of a burden for this kababayan ni Andres, a plebeian, so he claims. For the C-5 insertion issue, which is too obvious to overlook, and too mischievous to put under the rags. His integrity has a big question mark. He land-grabs, he bribes, and he’s got a wife who might be the next Imelda, only that she does not have the beauty of the Lady herself. Anyway, so Villar fails our second criterion. Now Erap, okay, he was decided to run without persuasion from anyone who is in his right mind. Having said that, he fails the third criterion, right-on! He has got stupid friends. So what can we tell about him? We should not talk anymore about this incredulous, bibulous, injudicious, x-ious president we wish we never had. For Gibo, he has the best qualities of being a leader. His decision to run, his track record in DND, but, a big but actually, we all know who his friend is, right? Do we want another lame “I’m sorry” after this election? Probably not.

      Let me commit yet another fallacy of generalization to rush this test for the others. Villanueva, he fails in the second criterion because even if we assume that he has shown honesty and integrity in his church, we know that the government is a completely different religion. He hasn’t shown enough government experience to convince the people that he can be what he says he will be when he holds the reins of power. Imagine a man, who is very good in dama and volunteered to play first board in Linares inter-zonal chess tournament. The same predicament also holds true for both Delos Reyes and Perlas. Even if it is Erap who brags about the importance of experience, we cannot dispose it as one of Erap jokes. Finally, let’s test Jamby. All right, she failed all. First, she wasn’t herself when she decided to run for president. Second, she doesn’t exhibit honesty, let alone integrity—go ask Juday. Third, okay, this last criterion is hard for me to test on her, because she appears to have no friends at all. Let me just say, that she is… well, unwell.

      Now I have come to my conclusion of my highly fallacious arguments. All the other contenders to the position have failed in the test based on the three criteria. Gordon is the only logical dreg, whether you agree with me or not. He passes criterion 1, he even surpasses this by persuading an opponent, Bayani, to support him instead. He passes criterion 2, the SBMA is his monument that heralds his abilities as a leader, although as with most or all of our politicians, I cannot guarantee an A+ on his honesty and integrity, maybe a B- or even a C, but passes the criterion nevertheless. The last criterion, his friends are low-profile, non-influential people, that neither donate big campaign money nor force other subordinates to bet for Gordon. Not to mention, his bulwark of friends, the vampires, the Red Cross people. In summary, he is our country’s best option to become the President. Not barako, not bakla.

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