Grand Gestures

June 30, 2010. Today, Benigno Simeon Aquino III takes his oath as the 15th President of the Republic of the Philippines amidst the protocol and tradition that marks the pomp of this public office. These rituals, framed by the provisions of a Constitution born after the struggles against an authoritarian, are important. They are grand markers of transition of leadership and, hopefully, of policy. Grand gestures of governance.

Yet, in spite of its pomp, the celebrations today dwarf in relation to the challenge of governance.

Governance takes place within the frame of mundane problems experienced by ordinary people. They are especially insidious. Food that is not only scarce and unaffordable but likewise lacking in nutrition. The possibility that man made activity can cause scorching heat and wild weather fluctuations to continue to take their toll not only through floods and land erosion but likewise the deficit in energy that can slow down, if not grind to a halt, economic activity. The conflict between their silent interests and that of corporate greed searching for gold and other irrelevant uses of property. The ubiquitous presence of pollutants, such as second and third hand smoke from cigarettes, that slowly but surely weaken the immunities of those who are truly poor. The family that cannot stay together because the available educational system structured their skills to be serve the menial jobs of two hundred other countries.

Decisions at the Office of the President will appear to be difficult. This is because there will be the inevitable choice between principle and survival against entrenched economic and, hence, political interests. The framing of the decisions will not be packaged as a choice of good and bad: rather they will be couched as the plausible and possible compromises. The choices will not be made legible simple through the invocation of phrases such as “people power”, “public participation” nor of “pagbabago”. For these are shibboleths proper for the grand gestures: in daily governance they painfully need specificity. For we have peoples: with multi-ethnic origins, with various cultures, in different classes and multiple needs and desires. The President needs to privilege some of them over the others. He is President of the entire Republic but he is also the hope to achieve a just society. Pagbabago also can really move in different directions. Leadership in this next generation requires clarity, certainty, accountability and responsibility for decisions made.

Decisions at the Office of the President will appear to be difficult only because vested interests require them to be vague and ambiguous only in their favor.

To President Benigno Simeon Aquino III we hope you do the right thing. Keep your vision the Philippines, not six years from now, but generations hence. Meet the challenges today. Go beyond the finite and parochial interests of those who are powerful. Make certain that our children and their children will not only have a sustainable future, but a quality of life that we can only dream today. Listen.

Then, I think, you will earn your place in history.