"So distinctive is the honor, so enticing the perks."
The presidency is the most powerful and highest elective position in our government. So distinctive is the honor, so enticing are the perks and privileges, so effervescent is the regard, adulation, and respect, so strong is the appeal to the opposite sex, and so easy and so many are the opportunities to get rich that so many, including lunatics, want to be president.
Whoever wins the presidency on May 9, 2022 immediately becomes the cynosure of all eyes. The people will be looking at him in awe, wondering how he got elected.
Now that he holds in his hands the country’s and their own destiny, the people will accord him great respect. Some will even worship him like a king.
The president-elect becomes an instant celebrity, far more prestigious than a sports icon or an entertainment luminary. His wife and children are treated with much deference and courtesy.
The president heads the executive department purportedly which the constitution considers co-equal with the legislative and judicial branches of the government. But in reality, the executive is much more important and powerful than Congress or the judiciary. The president stands alone. He is above the Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
What makes the president even more powerful is his being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Philippines. He decides whether or not the country should go to war over a conflict with another nation. He is responsible for maintaining peace and order in the country and safeguarding the security of the state. This is why he is heavily guarded wherever he is or goes. The safety of the president, even his health, is of abiding concern to Juan dela Cruz.
When his sensibilities are offended and his intelligence is insulted, the president could be fearsome and dangerous. Some former presidents sent their critics to jail. Others made the lives of their political enemies miserable.
One of the strongest motives which drive many to aspire for the presidency are the many and easy opportunities to make money. The president can make himself enormously wealthy by gaining control of the most vital arteries of the national economy. He can demand protection money from taipans and rich businessmen. The president can put money into his pocket from the public treasury and get away with it.
The perks and privileges of the president are even more enticing to anyone who thinks he is good enough to be president. This is what induces morons, scalawags, and dregs of society to run for the presidency.
Most of our former male presidents could not resist the allure and dalliance of beautiful women. Some even boast of their amorous conquests. Some of the victims are equally proud to be a presidential paramour. What the president can offer is irresistible.
The president is always accorded the highest respect and courtesy in all public events. He always sits at the head of the dining table. Just sitting next to the president is even considered a privilege.
But the challenges, the overwhelming problems, the incessant carping of the press and critics, the unreasonable demands of his political associates, the deafening cry of the downtrodden and impoverished masses, and he anxiety over the judgment of history are among the most compelling reasons why some qualified and respectable individuals do not aspire for the presidency.
The president is not immune to criticism. His political enemies pillory him every time he makes an outrageous decision. His critics document his mistakes, expose his abuses and make his daily life miserable. Media has always been the most unrelenting critic of the president. All previous presidents experienced strained relationships with the media fraternity. Even the 100-day honeymoon of the president with the press is hardly observed by some media establishments.
The most vexing problem of every new president is paying his political debts. Those who gave him huge financial support may demand not only protection but also lucrative contracts to regain their investments.
Every president inherits the problems left behind by their predecessors. President Rodrigo Duterte, on a number of occasions, sadly admitted that he failed to solve graft and corruption and the drug menace. These are two pervasive problems which will confront his successor.
But the most harrowing problem the incumbent president is presently wrestling with is the pandemic. COVID -19 has wrecked the national economy, thrown millions out of jobs, and deepened the anxieties and heartaches of the people, particularly the downtrodden and disadvantaged.
The problem which will nag every president throughout his term is the promise to relieve the people’s hardships and to fulfill their dreams.
There are many other less burdensome yet equally vexing problems which exasperate the president.
The dishonesty, incompetence, and abuses of some of his allies and subordinates undermine the people’s trust and confidence in the leadership of the sitting president. Most of our former presidents lost even their modest accomplishments because of the shortcomings and shenanigans of the people they enlisted to help them run the government.
Every president aspires to be revered, not just remembered. Each one tries to be a great president Sadly, most of our former presidents squandered their opportunities to be great. History had already judged them unerringly, even harshly.
What makes a president so exasperated is his being blamed for all the disasters and crises that visit the country. The most unfair and impossible demand the people usually ask the president is to provide them with all their needs. They expect the president to perform miracles. When he fails, they blame him even as they know that what they are asking is beyond the president’s power or capacity to fulfill.
Whether it is the enormous benefits or the foreboding difficulties which will induce one to run or not to run for president, it is the mandate of the presidency on which the decision should be made.
The constitution clearly states the mandate on the presidency; the responsibilities and obligations he is sworn to assume upon taking his oath of office.
These noble objectives are clearly enunciated in the preamble and in the declaration of principles of the constitution. They are to be carried out in legislative measures in accordance with the provisions in the fundamental law.
What the constitution mandates are the responsibilities and obligations of the president, not the opportunities to acquire fame, power, and fortune. The additional titles and designations of the president are meant to delineate the various other duties he must assume, not as habiliments for assuming more power and an aura of eminence and dominance.
It is when these additional titles are misused and abused that the presidency becomes a fearsome institution or a dictatorship. The reward for those who fail to avoid the perils of dominance is shame and consignment to the dustbin of history.
Let us cite some of the basic directives a president must obey:
The president must always uphold the welfare and interest of the people over and above his own.
The president is sworn to always uphold the law, do justice to every man, and to preserve and defend the constitution. The Constitutional Commission which drafted the 1987 charter curiously did not include the word “obey” in article 5 of the Declaration of Principles.
As head of state, the president is mandated to maintain peace and order and to promote and protect life, liberty, and property.
There are now over a dozen known aspirants or being groomed as possible candidates for president. Most of them lack the credentials and are short of the other requirements. They all strongly believe in themselves. They even mistake the voice of the people as theirs. But if they take a closer look and become true to themselves, they will think twice before they will throw their hats into the ring. They might even be ashamed of themselves for thinking so highly of themselves. Some will fall out and run for lower positions or hope for a prestigious appointment if the candidate they support wins.
It will take a few more weeks or a month or two before the serious candidates for president emerge. What is going on now is a realignment or polarization of political forces.
Eventually, only about three or five will be at the starting gate.
Are the candidates aware of the stakes in the coming presidential race? They should keep in mind that what is at stake is not their individual fortunes, honors, or interests but the future and destiny of the Filipino race.
This should be the fundamental reason why they should run for president.
Ernesto G. Banawis is a student of history and government.egbanawis@gmail.com
