VILLAR: EMBODIMENT OF 'PHILIPPINE DREAM'

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The social forecaster J. Naisbitt, among the sharpest observers of cultural innovations worldwide, declared in his book Megatrends Asia that the ‘Asian dream’ is the global dream of the moment. Realizing this gigantic power shift, Naisbitt challenged the youth of the West to “go East!”

If we were to localize the global trend of ‘Asian Dream’, we can find this in the capsule term ‘Philippine Dream’. This is the dream of any struggling child to live a future of abundance, a dream that was once championed in America (‘American dream’) but which has been lost along the way, a dream that has found root finally in our own motherland.

My contention is that, if the Philippine state would refurbish its nauseating image as a ‘weak state’, it would find a fresh start in electing a president who is an embodiment of the ‘Philippine dream’. Luck of all luck, the Nacionalista Party’s own top leader, Manny Villar, fits squarely into this ‘Philippine Dream’ mold.

The Manny Villar narrative is practically saying to our compatriots that nobody has to leave the country for overseas job in order to live abundance in everyday life. Stake it out in the country, live to learn well, be daring to be innovative and pioneering, and one will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of poverty.

Do not wait for opportunities to drop from the sky like ripe guavas descending on the mouth of a proverbial Juan Tamad. Build the opportunities, and be daring to re-engineer yourself in the process to keep on bringing you up to the next level of success.

Such is the sterling truth exemplified by the Villar narrative, which is indeed splendidly impressive and worth a plethora of accolades. Only Villar fits this mold among the couples of presidential candidates, most of whom are the typical coño kids who treat the poor folks as utilitarian objects for vote-gathering purposes. Not only did Villar soil his hands in creating opportunities for housing and urban development, he was also among those noblesse legislators who built enabling measures to widen the latitudes of social equity and economic prosperity. And yet no coño kid is he amid his abundant life!

I remember the coño kids on campus as highly scorned spoiled brats who are in the university largely to display wealth and who condescendingly regard their schoolmates as lizards and rats. A few of them did I make friends with, those who can be remolded to a life of social relevance, even as I was among those self-supporting students (I was a full scholar) and grew as a militant activist. Well immersed among fellow intellectuals, I only had but expletives reserved for the coños.

Today I am among those who ask: what right has a coño to be president of the republic? A person who grew up in a mansion and couldn’t soil his hands in work deserves to be a leader of colonial era government, and such an era is long gone!

I would ask the same for a vice-president: what right has a coño to be vice-president of the country? Isn’t Loren Legarda, who now teams up with Manny Villar, the most fit for the job since she embodies the ‘Philippine dream’ and all the sterling qualities of a talented and competent Pinoy who has risen from the hovels and lead a prosperous life?

An emerging market such as the Philippines has most to gain from electing highly competent top officials who embody the ‘Philippine dream’ and/or ‘Asian dream’. Conversely, it would be disastrous to elect Inquisitionist coño kids who in fact are mere smokescreens for crocodiles.

I am a firm believer in the ‘Philippine dream’ or ‘Asian dream’, and I go for a Villar-Legarda team for 2010.

[08 January 2010]