Friday, October 26, 2007 Roperos: Joint vision By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
WHAT I cannot be sure of is whether President Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia’s reported joint vision is designed to be permanent or just a mere stop gap measure to lull the republic into a temporary peace and quiet.
The way things look to us, the troubles that have rocked the Arroyo government did not appear as if it can easily be put to rest in an environment that sizzles with unanswered questions, before a public that has learned to disbelieve.
Truth to tell, the meeting that the President, de Venecia and former president Fidel Ramos held in Malacañang the other day, to my mind, was a most welcomed union of forces.
However, it bothers me to think that the three---although not more so with FVR who did will in his incumbency—are old hands in public service but were unable to come up with the best.
Let us just say that the years they spent in public office were useless years, wasted in some other endeavors.
Whatever could they have been doing during those times when they wielded tremendous political power and influence? The opportunity they had to do something for the country was not unlike what they hold now.
De Venecia said he and the President “are crafting a joint vision of what we should push for the country and for the people until 2010.” It is, so he says, very important “because we can’t continue to court darkness, investigations here, there, bribery here, there.”
He added: “We can’t achieve anything by talking in front of everyone. Both of us must talk as leaders of the nation whose goal should be the highest interest of the nation.”
It would have been a wonderful talk had it not been for the fact that there is a touch of presumption in it. People who have seen how the speaker and the President have been behaving the past many years could not help but ask what leadership he is talking about.
All these years, the republic has been groping in the dark, looking for such leadership. I have found none of such quality and magnitude as to enable the people to rise above its economic poverty and social misery.
Thus, to attain a better quality of life under the leadership that Joe de V speaks of effusively, leaders should lead the nation out of the political and social darkness into the light of economic abundance, political peace and social affluence.
Yet, search as we did, there is only the proverbial darkness.
