FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


AQUINO’S NANNY: HE DOES WHAT HE PROMISES


June 30, 2010 marks the end of the Arroyo regime in the Philippines that lasted for nine exciting years. Those years were also inciting because majority of the people have been looking forward to see the end of the Arroyo line.

As I said before in my previous column, the outgoing Philippine president I may say was chosen to rule the Filipino people for reasons God only knows. The same thing was true to the Marcos regime or to any other unpopular governments the world has ever had.

I surely think that God’s way is from night to day, death to life, or from gloom to joy. That would explain the applicability of some popular quotations such as “behind the cloud, there is a silver lining” or a Tagalog saying, “kung may hirap, may ginhawa.”(After poverty is prosperity)

The best way to start the incoming Aquino regime is look on the sunny side of life.

However, there are always bumps on any road or pitfalls to avoid on any journey to happiness. A positive mental attitude or hope for a better Philippines is indeed imperative to start rebuilding what was broken or damaged.

The idea that a public office is a public trust suffered the most in terms of value during the outgoing administration. Bundles and bundles of graft and corruption cases against high government officials have piled up in the courts’ logbooks and so far there have been very few convictions.

Lying and stealing among top government officials has become rampant at the expense of justice. Bribery has become a cultural trait among the people to get things done.

Killing of a human being has also become a norm as a byproduct of the rule of injustice. A crooked politician may order the liquidation of his political enemies at a cost of two thousand pesos per head, I presume. In most cases, the lawmen were the outlaws.

But I must say that “honesty is still the best policy.”

If what the former nanny said of Noynoy Aquino, the incoming president, is true that his greatest strength is doing what he promises to do or in other words, being honest, then we, the Filipino people, are in for a lot of surprises in dealing with the new Philippine government.

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


AQUINO’S NANNY: HE DOES WHAT HE PROMISES


June 30, 2010 marks the end of the Arroyo regime in the Philippines that lasted for nine exciting years. Those years were also inciting because majority of the people have been looking forward to see the end of the Arroyo line.

As I said before in my previous column, the outgoing Philippine president I may say was chosen to rule the Filipino people for reasons God only knows. The same thing was true to the Marcos regime or to any other unpopular governments the world has ever had.

I surely think that God’s way is from night to day, death to life, or from gloom to joy. That would explain the applicability of some popular quotations such as “behind the cloud, there is a silver lining” or a Tagalog saying, “kung may hirap, may ginhawa.”(After poverty is prosperity)

The best way to start the incoming Aquino regime is look on the sunny side of life.

However, there are always bumps on any road or pitfalls to avoid on any journey to happiness. A positive mental attitude or hope for a better Philippines is indeed imperative to start rebuilding what was broken or damaged.

The idea that a public office is a public trust suffered the most in terms of value during the outgoing administration. Bundles and bundles of graft and corruption cases against high government officials have piled up in the courts’ logbooks and so far there have been very few convictions.

Lying and stealing among top government officials has become rampant at the expense of justice. Bribery has become a cultural trait among the people to get things done.

Killing of a human being has also become a norm as a byproduct of the rule of injustice. A crooked politician may order the liquidation of his political enemies at a cost of two thousand pesos per head, I presume. In most cases, the lawmen were the outlaws.

But I must say that “honesty is still the best policy.”

If what the former nanny said of Noynoy Aquino, the incoming president, is true that his greatest strength is doing what he promises to do or in other words, being honest, then we, the Filipino people, are in for a lot of surprises in dealing with the new Philippine government.

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


AQUINO’S NANNY: HE DOES WHAT HE PROMISES


June 30, 2010 marks the end of the Arroyo regime in the Philippines that lasted for nine exciting years. Those years were also inciting because majority of the people have been looking forward to see the end of the Arroyo line.

As I said before in my previous column, the outgoing Philippine president I may say was chosen to rule the Filipino people for reasons God only knows. The same thing was true to the Marcos regime or to any other unpopular governments the world has ever had.

I surely think that God’s way is from night to day, death to life, or from gloom to joy. That would explain the applicability of some popular quotations such as “behind the cloud, there is a silver lining” or a Tagalog saying, “kung may hirap, may ginhawa.”(After poverty is prosperity)

The best way to start the incoming Aquino regime is look on the sunny side of life.

However, there are always bumps on any road or pitfalls to avoid on any journey to happiness. A positive mental attitude or hope for a better Philippines is indeed imperative to start rebuilding what was broken or damaged.

The idea that a public office is a public trust suffered the most in terms of value during the outgoing administration. Bundles and bundles of graft and corruption cases against high government officials have piled up in the courts’ logbooks and so far there have been very few convictions.

Lying and stealing among top government officials has become rampant at the expense of justice. Bribery has become a cultural trait among the people to get things done.

Killing of a human being has also become a norm as a byproduct of the rule of injustice. A crooked politician may order the liquidation of his political enemies at a cost of two thousand pesos per head, I presume. In most cases, the lawmen were the outlaws.

But I must say that “honesty is still the best policy.”

If what the former nanny said of Noynoy Aquino, the incoming president, is true that his greatest strength is doing what he promises to do or in other words, being honest, then we, the Filipino people, are in for a lot of surprises in dealing with the new Philippine government.

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


GOD KNOWS BEST!


Judging from the manner he came from nowhere compared to other presidential candidates who expressed their intent to run for president much, much earlier, Benigno“Noynoy” Aquino III, may be called as the Philippines’ Barack Obama.

At age 50 on the day of his inauguration on June 30 this year, Noynoy is only two years older than the American president whom many Americans particularly the media did not expect to win the White House in 2008. \

The media described Obama as a political lightweight with no chance of winning the American presidency for having been U.S. senator only for 2 years and carrying a name that somewhat sounds like Osama the terrorist.

As the saying goes, “God works in mysterious ways.” Noynoy’s and Barack’s election to the highest office of their respective countries is truly miraculous. When I predicted in one of my columns that the name of the next American president ends in a vowel, I was really thinking of Giuliani or Huckabee who both lost.

Out of these two miraculous political events, there is a lesson being revealed to mortals like us: No amount of money, powerful political machines, or an expensive all-out media blitz can derail what has been predestined. On this point, I may say that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Corruptible, was predestined to rule the Filipino people over the late Fernando Poe, Jr., the movie actor. I don’t need to question why but God in Heaven has His own reason.

Now, the American people have Barack Obama, definitely a weird name for an American president, as their leader for 2 more years. As he himself remarked, President Obama during the campaign told his audience, presumably because of his African American looks, his White Caucasian opponents would say: “You know, he doesn’t look like those American presidents on those dollar bills, you know.”

Now, the Filipino people have Noynoy Aquino as their leader for six years. Just imagine those nasty things his opponents said about him to the extent of pressuring him to get a psychological test. How much amazed were these people when he intelligently and firmly answered questions from the media immediately after his proclamation.

This is my belief: GOD KNOWS BEST.

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


HEED THE CALL FOR GREATNESS


One of the most important responsibilities of the incoming president of the Philippines is to search for good men and women to effect change in the new government. I believe that honesty coupled with intelligence should be one of the first requisites of a government official.

Is it really hard to find an intelligent and at the same time an honest person to serve the Filipino people? What a rare combination of good traits!

To the American people, Abraham Lincoln may be described as both honest and intelligent. Have you ever read his writings, most particularly his famous Gettysburg Address? His speech delivered at the height of the American civil war was short but concise, straightforward and honest, and rich in the advocacy for strong faith, honor, and glory that was worth fighting for. Under his leadership, the American nation was saved from destruction.

Our country, the Philippines, is still young and restless but has the potential to be great like the United States of America. Our leaders since the founding of the Filipino nation under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo have made some mistakes but always quick to learn from such mistakes. No doubt it really takes many years for a nation to be great.

The time to be positive and optimistic about the future of the Philippines is now and not tomorrow or another day. As the saying goes, like people like government.

It’s the call of the Filipino people to change for the better, not to tolerate corruption or the “among lagay”system, for one. So many have raised the issue of moral regeneration, so to speak, to do what is good, and to leave what is bad.

What would say “No” to such a call for greatness but the terrorists and the scums of the Philippines?