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Friday, July 08, 2005
Sula: I like Bill for President
By Jun Sula
I CAN'T understand people going bonkers over presidential options. It gives the wrong impression that there's no good one left to take over, in case something happens. Thirty years ago, the joke was that we were a 30 million or so nincompoops ruled by one SOB. By this time, the law on averages should have given us better choices, now that we're 80 million and booming.
Truth is, there's a lot to go around. I believe they are just as good if not better than the ones this roller-coaster archipelago has had - and enough.
I, for one, am bullish about a certain guy name Bill Luz. Yeah, that's the dapper, voluble, politically correct, second gentleman at NAMFREL who wears several hats and wears them comfortably. At least, that's my simple impression.
Like the good old poet, I can count the ways he can be a good president. Forget about great. Superlatives have brought us nothing but super failures for heaven knows how long. Maybe it's time we stopped overrating ourselves and our leaders.
For a start, Bill has a good sense of humor. I was watching the late news the other night and he was on the phone. Pressed by the anchor to declare a definitive position on the current political brouhaha, Bill said, without hesitation, that whatever needs to be done must be done quickly.
I nearly fell off my seat. Boy, that struck me as gallow humor. Because the last time something like that was said was more than 2,000 years ago. Judas, after planting a mischievous kiss on his Master's cheek, was told to do just that. Which he did - betraying his Master to the enemy for 30 pieces of silver. He ended up hanging himself.
At the time Bill said it, we were already way past what many believe was the betrayal. So, was he hinting that the next step should be taken? And by whom, for goodness sake?
Judging from the way he talks, on or off the camera, this Bill is some kind of an Ivy League educated fellow, maybe Harvard. He knows business, for one. I bet he knows economics, too. Obviously, he got a working interest in Philippine elections as well. And he's not a politician. At least, he doesn't claim to be one or hate one, for that matter.
So I think, Bill is highly acceptable. Businessmen will like him because businessmen like themselves. Economists will like him because their breed is an endangered species. Politicians will like him because politicians hate their kind. The rich will like him because there's a better chance they will get richer. The poor will like him because, well, almost everybody likes him already, anyway.
To top it all, Bill is not an office seeker. It is said, not too often though, that those who seek power are not fit to have it. Who can better fit the bill, so to speak, other than the likes of Bill?
In fact, I think Bill will not only be acceptable to Pinoys but even to foreigners, particularly the investors. The guy is so cut out, so configured and so gifted as to be a global persona. He can look every bit an American, European or Asian, Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. All you have to do is dress him up for the occasion, with or without the stubby beard.
What makes me slobber over this guy, Bill, is the way he speaks English. He doesn't sound like his tongue is wrapped around his neck. Neither does he breathe out a hissing sound that makes you feel you're asthmatic but just don't know it.
He's also not easily provoked, if at all. Watching an early morning news program, he was there, clearly rudely roused from sleep to shed light on an allegation about certain poll foolishness in Mindanao. Bill was cool as a cucumber and was every bit a civil and respectful man even as he was being portrayed on nationwide television as anything but fair and neutral in the 2004 polls.
Maybe he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. I mean, he seems very decent. Besides, he projects himself as he is his own gender. No offense meant, but there's a double pretender lurking out there. And even if Bill turns out to be eventually gay - or discovered - it would definitely not take him days to resign. Just like that New Jersey governor who confessed in public that he was the other "woman" and forthwith wrote his own walking paper.
I noticed Bill's eye bags, though. Maybe he should stop quarrelling with Nene Pimentel whose blooming eye bags are a gruesome symbol of the opposition's sleepless nights over Malacañang and its royal boarders.
I like Bill also because he seems to like Joe Concepcion a lot. You can't really be a bad guy if you're a friend to an old man who sells ice cream and pancake for a living.
And then has anybody come along with such an inspiring name that connotes purity and redemption? Luz means "light" which, from the beginning of the world, the Creator saw as good. You can't get any romantic or religious than that. I don't know about the Guillermo part of his name. But if typhoon "Emong", which blew over last Wednesday, is any indication, it's not really anything near a bad sign.
So I guess it makes sense to go for somebody like Bill at this time. At least, there's hope in this never, never land.
(July 8, 2005 issue)
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