Rockstar

"Our people are keeping their faith."

As our Tagalog ancestors would keep saying, “pagka haba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan din ang dating.”

As we kept writing in this column, all the noise and political skirmishes attendant to the choice of the speakership of the House of Representatives will amount to nothing in the end.

This is because the only voice that matters is that of their audience of one—the President.

We knew all along that when push comes to shove, the congressmen who kept preening about their “choices” and their “favorites” will eventually come trooping to the Palace and ask the president to decide for them.  Of course they retain the right to vote come July 22, but only to vote the endorsee of the audience of one.

The President kept everybody in tenterhooks, his playful, even mischievous wont being  to test the character of the major players.

Congratulations, Speaker Alan Peter.  You are now in charge of pushing through within the  next 15 months after 22 July, some of the most important pieces of legislation in our contemporary history.  And together with the President you supported in 2016, create that rendezvous with meaningful change.

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As political compromises go, Rep. Martin Romualdez who comes from one of the least favored and oft-neglected regions in our political practice, will be the Majority Floor Leader.  It’s not an easy job, husbanding major pieces of legislation through the committees and the floor, but Martin has both the academic credentials and the experience in both government and the private sector to steer through muddled waters. 

The President’s stated desire to see constitutional change, which he rightly says can be done while he is on the saddle, will find Martin and Alan willing and capable allies.

Please, let us effect major changes in the political system, through a revision of the Constitution of 1987.  Never mind if we do not federalize. That may be too tall an order and currently not pragmatic given the state of our economy, where inequality is both demographic and territorial.  But bring us back to the two-party system if we remain presidential, and bring back both order and sanity in our electoral system.  Open up the economy just wide enough to encourage investment flows we need so badly to employ our big labor force.  And reorganize government into a lean and effective bureaucracy.

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His victory in the last elections was a given, at least from this writer’s vantage view, both as a Manileno and as one whose feel of the public pulse has allowed me to predict the victory of many presidents after Ferdinand Marcos, the most unlikely being that of a city  mayor from the deep South when everyone was looking at the big political superstars from Luzon in 2015.

But Mayor Isko Moreno’s first week in office is something to appreciate. We look forward to many more such weeks.

My information officer gave me a Facebook video of Mayor Isko admonishing the street vendors of Divisoria about the need to put order in the streets.  He communicated to them in their language, the lingua franca of the streets of Tondo, making them feel that he was one of them, which he truly was, having been once a poor scavenger making both ends meet for him and his Samarena mother. And eliciting their cooperation in the process.

One next sees television footages of a wide boulevard, Claro M. Recto, from Tutuban to Asuncion, which people never imagined possible.  Then a Plaza Miranda, once the political center of gravity fronting historic Quiapo church, now cleared of itinerant vendors selling their wares, congesting traffic along Quezon Boulevard and depriving pedestrians of walking space.  Again, something you never imagined could yet be done.

He called for a meeting with the heads of Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone and Intramuros Administration, the national government agencies under the Department of Tourism, and got them to pledge assistance towards reviving Manila’s historic spots, and the fruition of a Heritage Trail that would link Luneta, Intramuros, Liwasan and Chinatown, which are the nation’s most cherished monuments to history.

They in turn requested for help to clear the Walled City of informal settlers, without which efforts to revive historic glory would be for naught.  And he promised them his political will.

He went to the Manila Zoo, and vowed not to commercialize the 5.4 hectare city property, just as he vowed to preserve the Arroceros Park beside the Pasig River, while promoting conservation and urban renewal.

Here is a suggestion, Mayor Moreno:  Talk to the president and DENR Secretary Cimatu, about relocating the zoo at the much bigger Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, which is more than four times bigger, and where the Parks and Wildlife Bureau is more technically adept at caring for the animals.  Truth is, animal lovers, whose numbers keep growing, frown on keeping animals in captivity for the visual delectation of kids.

Instead, convert the present Manila Zoo premises into an arboretum cum botanical garden and orchidarium that would exhibit our finest flora.  And instead of flower vendors crowding the narrow streets of Laong Laan and premises beside the Dangwa bus terminal, selling mostly highland-grown flowers, why not relocate them in the more spacious (and professionally designed, we hope) corner of Quirino Avenue and Adriatico, closer to the bigger markets of Makati and BGC and the tourist belt in Malate-Ermita.Little expense; bigger returns; more aesthetic.

Over dinner with Ping Lacson last week, the senator also expressed admiration for Mayor Isko, and the following day tweeted: “I hope I am not speaking too soon. As long as we see the emergence of new leaders like Mayor Isko Moreno, we can look forward to retirement and continue dreaming big for our beloved country. Let’s pray he will not be eaten by the system that consumed many others before him.”

Rep. Lito Atienza, who once ruled Manila for nine years as mayor, likewise expressed his hope that the new mayor will continue with his reforms, at the risk of “looking old after three years.”

Isko Moreno is fast becoming an instant rockstar of Philippine politics.

Remember that the world always gives way to a young man who knows where he is going.

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Just as we write this piece, Social Weather Stations released its net satisfaction ratings for President Duterte.  Despite the Recto Bank incident and the rather clumsy communication efforts of his cabinet’s handling of the incident, the President’s net satisfaction ratings remain stratospheric, inching up a point further from the March 2019 findings. Our people are keeping their faith in Duterte.

Now that’s a real political rockstar!