Not the best 

SOMETHING just doesn’t add up.

While government is the biggest corporation and employer in the country, and our President and other elected officials are expected to draw and implement the plans that will lead the country to greater heights in economic development, we insist on a Constitution that does not require a minimum educational attainment and experience to enable them to effectively discharge their mandated duties.

For instance, a President is expected not only to have a vision but will take charge of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, define the country’s relationships with foreign countries, establish economic policies, etc. And yet, our Constitution only requires 1. Natural born citizen of the Philippines 2. Registered voter 3. Able to read and write 4. At least 40 years of age on the day of election 5. Resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the election. Nothing is said about minimum educational attainment that is required of security guards, policemen, nurses and teachers.

The above basic qualifications evidently presuppose that government provides for the free college education of all that leads to employment or development of one’s entrepreneurial skills, but it does not. So, what the Constitution clearly tells us mainly is – Elect a President at your own risk and peril.

It’s no wonder that crackpots line up to file their certificates of candidacy even for the highest position in the land.

Until we impose more rigid requirements for all electoral positions, we will be stuck with the thought: We only get what we deserve.

 

Vindictive, unpresidential

JOKER Arroyo was the first lawyer to question the imposition of the dreaded Martial Law in 1972.  He was virtually unknown then, someone from Bicol who would fight Marcos’ military courts with sheer, garrulous guts in defense of political prisoners like Jose W. Diokno, Chino Roces and, yes, Ninoy Aquino—all heroes today.

When Cory Aquino became president in 1986, Joker was her executive secretary, Little Prez.  But Joker became senator, he became the No. 1 critic of PNoy, Cory’s only son.

For calling PNoy’s style of running the government “like a student council,” Joker got himself forever deleted from Mr. Aquino’s radar.  He was only one of three dissenters that voted “No” to the PNoy-instigated ouster of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

When Joker, 88, died on October 6, PNoy reportedly did not send a personal message of sympathy.  Vindictive to the very end.  Unpresidential.

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