Dick for president?
RICHARD GORDON has never been shy about his ambition to be one day President of the Philippine republic. Last week the brilliant, brash senator from Olongapo was in San Francisco to check out California’s automated voting system. He wants a similar system in the Philippines to preclude, among others, the possibility of another Hello Garci scandal in the future.
(I don’t know anything about automated voting because I have opted for the absentee ballot, which I find more convenient.)
Apparently Gordon was pleased with what he saw because he would occasionally interrupt our conversation to do a phone interview on the issue with radio shows in the Philippines. He was voluble about the merits of the automated voting system and wondered why there is so much opposition to it.
I wanted to butt in and say that it was not the technology that was being opposed, but rather the cynicism that is triggered among Filipinos whenever confronted with such ambitious and expensive projects. Putting it crudely, the first question that comes to mind of most Filipinos whenever such high-profile, cash-rich projects are brought up is whose pockets are going to be fattened with the purchase of this technology.
Dick Gordon has been in politics longer than I have been a journalist. He is known for his out-of-the-box thinking, the kind that made the former U.S. naval base in Subic, along with the city of Olongapo which has been ruled by his family since the Jurassic period, a paragon for economic planning and development in the Philippines. His courage is almost legend, and he brooks no nonsense. He could not have made it to where he is now had he neither the savvy nor the intestinal fortitude for politics as practiced in the Philippines. He is a gladhander, but won’t hesitate to bark in your face if you say something he thinks is wrong.
Which is why I can’t believe my ears when he says he does not understand the opposition to automated voting in the Philippines. Is he being naïve (what is the price of democracy? he asks) or is his idealism clouding his reality?
To me it seemed the latter. There were about half a dozen of us, community leaders kuno, around the table at the San Francisco consulate. Consul Anton Mandap organized the tete-a-tete to get Gordon more acquainted with the community. I understand a similar meeting had been organized with other FilAm folks earlier. Before our meeting, Gordon presided over the oath-taking of a group of new dual citizens.
It was at first a freewheeling discussion, when I decided to give it more direction and allow him to talk about the Philippine political situation. I threw him a softball that allowed him to talk about his plan to run for the presidency in “oh-ten.”
He spoke briefly of what ailed the motherland, which he used as an on-ramp to roll out his spiel about why he is the person that could turn things around. He spoke about his track record: about what he did at Subic (how he was able to convince Fedex to set up shop there), his stint as tourism secretary (Wow Philippines), his principled opposition to Marcos and Erap and disagreements with the policies of Cory and Gloria, etc.
A very impressive track record, indeed. And I told him that based on it, I would support him in a heartbeat, but that he would lose.
“Who cares about track record now?” I asked. “You yourself said earlier Filipinos cannot seem to see beyond their noses. You couldn’t win if you did have a retinue of actors and singers during a campaign.
His response, which included throwing up of his hands and swiveling his chair, indicated I may have touched a raw nerve. With such a cynical attitude, he said in so many words, then hope is lost.
I believe, he said, in the Filipinos’ ability to do the right thing. He believes that anytime soon, Filipinos will see through the shallowness and crassness of some of his fellow politicians and vote into office people who not only have the capability but also the will to serve.
Which is why he says he is launching a new political party he is calling Bagumbayan (new nation), referring to the place where Jose Rizal was shot. Brushing aside S.F. lawyer Rene Pascual’s wry remark that it could be called Bagumbayad (newly paid), Dick said it was the place where Filipinos found the courage to fight the Spaniards and end 400 years of subjugation.
We, too, would like to believe. Lito Gutierrez, Philippine News Online
(I don’t know anything about automated voting because I have opted for the absentee ballot, which I find more convenient.)
Apparently Gordon was pleased with what he saw because he would occasionally interrupt our conversation to do a phone interview on the issue with radio shows in the Philippines. He was voluble about the merits of the automated voting system and wondered why there is so much opposition to it.
I wanted to butt in and say that it was not the technology that was being opposed, but rather the cynicism that is triggered among Filipinos whenever confronted with such ambitious and expensive projects. Putting it crudely, the first question that comes to mind of most Filipinos whenever such high-profile, cash-rich projects are brought up is whose pockets are going to be fattened with the purchase of this technology.
Dick Gordon has been in politics longer than I have been a journalist. He is known for his out-of-the-box thinking, the kind that made the former U.S. naval base in Subic, along with the city of Olongapo which has been ruled by his family since the Jurassic period, a paragon for economic planning and development in the Philippines. His courage is almost legend, and he brooks no nonsense. He could not have made it to where he is now had he neither the savvy nor the intestinal fortitude for politics as practiced in the Philippines. He is a gladhander, but won’t hesitate to bark in your face if you say something he thinks is wrong.
Which is why I can’t believe my ears when he says he does not understand the opposition to automated voting in the Philippines. Is he being naïve (what is the price of democracy? he asks) or is his idealism clouding his reality?
To me it seemed the latter. There were about half a dozen of us, community leaders kuno, around the table at the San Francisco consulate. Consul Anton Mandap organized the tete-a-tete to get Gordon more acquainted with the community. I understand a similar meeting had been organized with other FilAm folks earlier. Before our meeting, Gordon presided over the oath-taking of a group of new dual citizens.
It was at first a freewheeling discussion, when I decided to give it more direction and allow him to talk about the Philippine political situation. I threw him a softball that allowed him to talk about his plan to run for the presidency in “oh-ten.”
He spoke briefly of what ailed the motherland, which he used as an on-ramp to roll out his spiel about why he is the person that could turn things around. He spoke about his track record: about what he did at Subic (how he was able to convince Fedex to set up shop there), his stint as tourism secretary (Wow Philippines), his principled opposition to Marcos and Erap and disagreements with the policies of Cory and Gloria, etc.
A very impressive track record, indeed. And I told him that based on it, I would support him in a heartbeat, but that he would lose.
“Who cares about track record now?” I asked. “You yourself said earlier Filipinos cannot seem to see beyond their noses. You couldn’t win if you did have a retinue of actors and singers during a campaign.
His response, which included throwing up of his hands and swiveling his chair, indicated I may have touched a raw nerve. With such a cynical attitude, he said in so many words, then hope is lost.
I believe, he said, in the Filipinos’ ability to do the right thing. He believes that anytime soon, Filipinos will see through the shallowness and crassness of some of his fellow politicians and vote into office people who not only have the capability but also the will to serve.
Which is why he says he is launching a new political party he is calling Bagumbayan (new nation), referring to the place where Jose Rizal was shot. Brushing aside S.F. lawyer Rene Pascual’s wry remark that it could be called Bagumbayad (newly paid), Dick said it was the place where Filipinos found the courage to fight the Spaniards and end 400 years of subjugation.
We, too, would like to believe. Lito Gutierrez, Philippine News Online
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
6:37 PM
1 Comments:
Alam mo sumulat ako noon sa kanya noong SBMA chairman pa siya na sana tumakbo siyang Presidente. Nasubaybayan ko ang kanyang pamamahala sa Olongapo. Laki ako diyan at Jackson High. Isa siya sa mga pinamarisan ko na walang tamad sa Olongapo. Siya ang aking Mayor noong nandiyan pa ako. Desiplinado, Matalino, May paninindigan. Kaya noong naging Senador na siya Im proud! kasi isa ako sa mga nakasaksi ng kanyang TUNAY at MAKATAONG pamamahala. Go for it and AIM HIGH! Sana matupad at ng patuloy na mapakingan ang boses ni BOSS sa buong Pilipinas.
The Abello's
By
Anonymous, at 11/21/2006 5:30 PM
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