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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Echaves: Bedfellows
By Lelani P. Echaves
“I feel humbled.” So said candidate Fernando Poe Jr. upon getting the Comelec’s clearance to run for president.
When American mathematical genius John Forbes Nash Jr. received together with Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, for his group’s pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games, he too said “I feel humbled.”
The Nobel Prize is, after all, the first international award given yearly since 1901 for outstanding achievements and breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. Also, Nash was speaking before that prestigious body of internationally renowned and recognized scientists and experts from various parts of the world. When recognition comes from equally accomplished peers, one can correctly say “I feel humbled.”
When in the 1974 Miss Universe pageant, Spain’s candidate Amparo Muñoz won the crown despite the photographers’ and crowd’s favorites from Finland, Wales and Aruba, Muñoz said, “I humbly accept this award.”
Muñoz had, after all, humble beginnings. The daughter of a Spanish pugilist did not finish a college degree and was a movie starlet before joining the beauty contest. Photographers and socialites used to whisper that the evening gown she had worn at the final phase was the very same one she had worn in two previous occasions.
So, where is Poe’s “I feel humbled” coming from? I suppose that with the results showing him topping the surveys, he must now feel as equally accomplished and fit to run for the top post of the land? Is Poe now among peers, and how so?
His drumbeaters include senators Tito Sotto, Edgardo Angara and Loren Legarda. He may be senator, true, but Sotto’s accomplishments haven’t been significant. And since he’s a product himself of the entertainment world, then he and Poe are peers in the true sense of the word.
Once upon a time, Edgardo Angara stood on a pedestal, specially among law firms and among the faculty and students of the University of the Philippines of which he was once president. But those are days gone by.
As a private person, he maintained a presence respected and dignified. As a public person, he revealed himself. And the sages spoke with thunderous truth: That power does not change a person, but rather only unmasks him.
That’s the Angara closely associated with deposed president Ferdinand Marcos in the latter’s days of glory and strong rule. The same Angara who cleverly maneuvered himself into the Cory Aquino group, and later became movie star Joseph “Erap” Estrada’s vice-presidential candidate.
The same Angara who cautioned Estrada from leaving Malacañang. The same Angara coaching Estrada’s good friend Fernando Poe to not shy away from the presidency, despite the latter’s telegraphic statements and the absence of a political platform and economic programs.
And where Angara is, can Loren Legarda be far behind? She who cried for the nation when the pro-Estrada senators preempted Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. during the Estrada hearings, is now with the Estrada camp.
Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta must be chuckling. True, Oreta notoriously became the “dancing queen,” but at least, she’s steadfast with the opposition. Opportunism does make strange bedfellows.
And notice how Legarda’s makeup is gone, a stark contrast to the years of heavy makeups as a news anchor, show producer, commercial endorser, and member of the Senate. Blame it on the punishing schedule? Sheer gimmickry, really. Sans make-up, Legarda appears reachable to the “masa,” the “common tao.”
Imitation, it’s said, is the best form of flattery. In ridiculously imitating Poe’s status and popularity, the senators have become his peers. No wonder he “feels humbled.”
(e-mail: lelani88@yahoo. com)
(February 11, 2004 issue)
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