At this point, the more popular polling circuits SWS and Pulse Asia must have already conditioned the public mind to choose the next president for 2010 from a pack of only 5 presidentiables – Noli, Chiz, Erap, Manny, Mar – in what is described as a neck to neck race.
Are we then to trust these surveys knowing that only 1,200 adult respondents were interviewed? In the case of those 1 percenters alone – Gordon, Manny Pangilinan, Justice Puno, Teodoro – will have good reason to believe that this Pulse results are bogus, possibly ‘pushed or pulled’ largely depending who pays the higher commissions. In other words, things end up in a relationship of – ‘patrons come, patrons served’. And in fact, poor BF scores even less than 1% at 0.3.
At that rate, the 1 million and 700,000 Filipinos crossing over those 51 footbridges studiedly put up by BF in busy intersections of the whole Metro Manila to make their lives free from every vehicular accident in the streets, may well shout at the top of their voice to say – “that survey is a farce”. And not few can join the protest shout, come to think of it.
It seems ironic that the reasons for choices revolve around the – “candidate’s being helpful toward others (34%), particularly the poor (27.3%) and overseas Filipino workers (6.6%) followed by the candidate’s accomplishments (11.6%), being clean or not corrupt (7.1%), goodness (5.6%) and being a fighter (5.4%)”. These survey results appear to be getting more improbable each single time and conveniently pre-selected only a handful at the expense of all the rest. Why this?
Couldn’t one call being helpful that of building two Gwapotels as 3 to 4-storey lodging houses for workers and transients at the cost of only P25 complete with room and bath? Is it not being pro-poor to build sidewalks where people in the streets could walk on rather than be part of the casualty toll – 1 death in EDSA a day, 1 death in Commonwealth a day – before industrial designer BF into the scene?
And the survey outfit pretends to have captured who accomplished the most, reason for the top 5? How stupid could Pulse get on this regard really challenges reflection. For instance, Metro Gwapo is really about the whole of Metro Manila comprising so many cities and municipalities, not to say barangays taken together. And if the accomplishments of the passionate artist cum industrial designer BF in Metro Manila in terms of engineering works – pink urinals, sidewalks, pink fences, footbridges, u turn slots, elevated u turns, transport terminals, passenger waiting areas, not to mention flood control projects, traffic schemes, garbage collection – shall even fail to approximate a ‘new culture of productivity, then we sure don’t know what is?
Being a fighter is an ideal trait for the would-be president and could that have been properly reflected by whom Pulse Asia placed 1st in the chart? What is it or precisely those things that Noli is known to have fought for throughout the time he was Vice President? Compared that to the feat that BF has to face even being called the Hitler? But is the poor BF really a Hitler just because he has to drive away the sidewalk vendors? At the very least, has there been a reported case that at least 1 person died precisely because say – “namatay sa gutom dahil pina-alis ni BF sa sidewalks”?
There are those who complain of an elevated u-turn which in truth costs the government about P360K, a cost that is recouped within only 2 months of use. In fact, according to BF, the government in fact incurs P2.5 billion a year – in the absence of this Kalayaan elevated u-turn. So, on which side are we in terms of cost-benefit analysis?
BF knows that, in doing what he has immense passion of doing, we are watched by the world. Every turn of the day, we are watched by no less than the World Bank. Truly, with 40 years as an engineer, he knows that he must attached premium to development from an engineer’s point of view. For the man, this country is 200 years behind in technology as it is in development because the programs of government are not really implemented.
While BF believes in the system – that there is, in fact, a fully developed check and balance in all layers of the system – the problem seems to have lied on the utter lack of political will that should originate right from the top – the presidency. For him, the flow ought to be from the top down to the lowest layer of the government system. And this much-sought change in development as it is in the whole national consciousness toward social behavior adept to technology and sense of pride (the reflexive fear of being fired if found either incompetent or corrupt) is for BF – the work ethic. The Metro Gwapo concept alone will be launched in the major cities of the country and the so-called “pink utopia” will be permanent icons in the country’s changing development and growth priorities. I give my thumbs up for BF – however some would choose to disagree. Poll surveys are nothing but feeds to the unthinking mass.
If we go by more contemporary trends, professional engineers are the ones running the corporate governments of China and Singapore. Shouldn’t it be time to vote for BF as the next president 2010 – all other criteria being met? If there is one presidentiable who can take the bull by the horn, it must be the MMDA chair with his promise – “achieving an accountable government”. So folks, rather than subscribe to that rotten conventional wisdom that the next president should come from the Senate, for a change, why don’t we cast a wider net?