Everything seems to be on hold for prospective investors in the Philippines because of the coming elections. But to me this election will probably be the start of the most exciting years of my life as a Filipino.
I must confess that the first President I ever supported was Ferdinand Marcos. He was brilliant, an orator, a valiant defender of democracy, military hero and was fighting graft and corruption as one of his platforms when he ran against the incumbent President Diosdado Macapagal. In that 1965 election, I was too young to vote but I looked up to him as a great leader.
At the time, the Philippines was the leading nation in the Far East. Our educational system was the best in Asia and our economy has never been as robust in its entire young life as an independent nation especially during the first term of President Marcos.
In 1971 a constitutional convention was held paving the way for a semi parliamentary form of government giving the President 8 years with unlimited term extension but by election.
At the time a year before the end of Marcos term 1972-1973, communism appeared to become very strong. It infiltrated most student and labor organizations and with the necessary chaos by which communism normally earn its way to power, classes were suspended almost every other week. Everything seemed to be in disarray. Yeah it was fun for most of us but we were going nowhere.
When Martial law was declared, congress was dissolved and I was one of those who agreed that Martial law was the right solution. And aha, Marcos my hero would still be President.
True enough, peace and order finally reigned.
Far from my mind was what would happen during the ensuing years. With his absolute power, Marcos turned greedy to be polite about it. Everyone knows what happened next. He created and lead his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan movement trying to change society by subtle force and indoctrination. I remember getting exempted from ROTC by going aboard an education tour by love boat cruising all over the Visayas. "Whoowie, this is life!" I thought.
It turned out to be a mind conditioning trip. We were asked to attend 8 hours of class a day for one week to convince us that Martial law was the necessary foundation for economic progress.
Since Marcos was not elected into power, his legitimacy was largely put in doubt not only domestically but also elsewhere. So he called for a national election. He won by a landslide against someone by the name of ... by the name of ... what's his name again? Ah yes Alejo Santos (I had to google search to find his name). I exercised my right to vote and went for Marcos ...strike one.
Everything that was developing seemed to point towards putting Marcos in power indefinitely. Naturally, there was unrest with Senator Ninoy Aquino from the U.S. leading the pack of his opponents. In 1983 he decided to return and was killed in the airport.
Cory Aquino after series of protests became President by people power in 1986 now known as EDSA I.
As penance for the wrong choice I made I suppose, I was lead with my wife to sleep inside our car that we parked at the EDSA gate of camp Aguinaldo on the first night that Cardinal Sin radioed for help. I remember that first night, the support was very thin and disorganized and kidding aside, I thought our car was the only one parked in front of the Camp Aguinaldo gate by around 4:00 AM. When we woke up at about 7:00AM, we were surprised by the sheer number of supporters that kept coming in between camps Aguinaldo and Crame. I thought our small car could not be able to leave EDSA for lack of space to drive on.
My wife and I were ecstatic with hope and so did most Filipinos.
The revolutionary government of President Cory gave rise to the opportunity to put in place a constitutional convention shielded from political influence as the delegates were appointed by an independent commission based on expertise and barely by connection. The result was an outstanding, though not perfect, constitution that we are sworn to follow up to this day.
A peaceful election in 1992 took place and my new President Fidel Ramos took over. It was one of the most progressive periods in my life time only to be messed up by an overwhelmingly popular but very incompetent President actor Joseph Estrada who won by a landslide (the biggest margin in any Philippine presidential race) against my candidate Jose de Venecia in 1998.
President Joseph did not last long as he was forced out of power by what is now known as EDSA II out of allegations of corruption, stock manipulation, benefiting from illegal gambling, etc.
Come GMA by succession. She was very popular for so many years until she confessed that she tried to influence the COMELEC officials in Mindanao which provided her crucial votes to win the presidential election in 2004 against another popular actor Fernando Poe Jr.
From then on her popularity deteriorated and up to now never recovered not even after pardoning Joseph Estrada who was convicted of plunder with the hope that Estrada supporters will help improve her popularity. Her legacy was a government bereft of dignity and clean governance. Oh, I voted for her ...strike two.
Now I feel that I am on the home base once again aiming this time for a home run because all indications are that my candidate is going to win and he conveyed convincingly the image that he was substantially for clean and no-nonsense governance. The economy is healthy thanks to the independent Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The world economy is on its way to recovery. The timing of it all is perfect.
This is why I am excited. For the first time since EDSA I, my hope has never been this high that the Filipinos now have a better than average batting chance to turn this great nation around and become a leading economy once again in this part of the globe.
So what next after the May elections? I would say more work for us Filipinos because we have a budget to balance in six years time. Our economy has a good chance that it might do an India if not a China. And if everything goes well, the next President in 2016 who I hope will win in this May election as Vice President of the land will continue on this legacy of good governance.
At long last I am going to witness this progress in my lifetime! If this isn't exciting, I don't know what is. This time, it will probably be a home run.
