THE FALLACIES OF THE FPJ CAMPAIGN


photo from inq7

FPJ drop out in high school because his father died when he was young and he has to work for the family.

Believe me, I have read this excuse in my yahoo group from people who obviously work for FPJ. This could be a very good excuse with an emotional appeal. Imagine, a devoted son ready to work at a very young age to put some food on the family’s table.

I would have been shedding with tears now and applauding him, but not this time, besides I am no drama queen!

My father died when I was twelve, my mother is only a mere government employee. At that time my father died, my mother was only earning less than P10,000.00 a month. I was in my sixth grade when my father died, my elder sister was in college in Silliman, and my two younger sisters are in prep school. It was a very difficult time for us, but we managed and we survived. My elder sister and I finished college and my two younger sisters are now in college.

We could have quit going to school at that time to help our mother make a living, but my mother knows the importance of education. My mother sent us to good schools and studying entailed a lot of sacrifices for us, but we were able to manage.

I know there are thousands others whose situations are far worst than mine, but they were also able to finish college

My point is, if you believe on the value of education you would know how important it is and you would do all your best just to earn a degree.

FPJ was not poor and never was poor. There are a lot of entertainers who juggled work and college and were able to finish, but not FPJ. For me, it only proves one thing, learning and earning knowledge are not on top of his list. Education is not his priority and now he wants to be President of this country, how could we think of having him as President.

True, FPJ is not schooled, but he is taking crash course on economics, governance and politics with some UP professors

Oh dear! From experience, a crash course is only bound to one thing - - a crash landing.

What FPJ did is to do cramming and my experience (and probably for all of us) cramming does not work. If you cram for your exams, you might be lucky sometimes, but most of times you are bound to forget all the things that you learned through cramming once you see the test papers.

This is only college, now magnify this to the level of national governance where the problems are way way much difficult and more complex than your college exams, then put a leader who will work on these problems who crammed in studying his lessons, what can you expect? A miracle?!

FPJ is sincere

So am I and millions other. But would that be enough to be President of this country?

Yes, FPJ does not have any experience in government, but he has experience running his own company

What company was that? Was that company listed in the top 5000 companies of the country? How many employees are working for that company? And why is it that it is only now that I heard of that company?

If running a company is the basis of becoming the President, then the Zobel Ayalas could probably be a good president too. But again, that is not only the basis. A President is the Chief Executive of the Country, the Head of State, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the Chief Foreign Relations Officers, and many others. Would FPJ’s experience enough to fit in into those positions?

How many employees that FPJ has in his company where he personally managed for him to be capable of running this country with 80 million people?

FPJ could always hire the best advisers

True, he could do that. Erap did that and look what happened to him.

A leader always seeks the counsel of some other people. But the catch is, it isn’t always that advisers would give the same advice, most of time personal differences and motives would come and mixed with those advise. What knowledge that FPJ has for him to choose the best advice? Does he has the capability of discerning which among the advice that he gets, officially and unofficially, is best for the country and its people?

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If you notice, I made a lot of questions because unfortunately that is what I got from the FPJ campaign - - QUESTIONS!

I just wonder:
Does FPJ know how government operation is being run?

Can FPJ defend his foreign policy (if he has one) to statesmen? Or does he know the importance of an effective foreign policy?

Does FPJ know the very basic law of supply and demand in economics, the value of knowing the inflation rate, the difference of Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product and its implications?

Does FPJ know a very simple procedure like procurement of office supplies?

There are a lot of questions and I was hoping that earlier in his campaign FPJ would be able to show signs that he has answers to most, if not all, of this questions. But I didn’t get any. All I heard are those motherhood statements and those spiels from his movies that are only intended to arouse the emotions of the people but short or severely lacking in substance.

Yes, FPJ wants peace, jobs for Filipinos, food in every table of the Filipino family. We also want that and so are the other candidates, but the questions is - - how are you going to that? FPJ did not give any answer, instead, as evidenced by his political ads, FPJ wants answer from us. This act could be a good one knowing that in policy making a down-top-approach would help a better understanding to the problem, that is you get the pulse of the people and learn from their experience. But the problem is, with this approach you need a leader to provide the direction and the vision, otherwise what you will get are hudge-pudge of opinions with no clear direction as to where this policy is heading.

The trouble with FPJ is he refused from telling us the specifics of his plan which gave us the question, does he sincerely know how to find solutions to the problems of our country? Does he really know what entails to become the President of the Republic of the Philippines? Again, questions.

FPJ could have share this to us had he agreed to a debate, but he refused, calling the debate a “waste of time.”

Debate, in a democratic society, is important. That’s how democracy works and survived. In a democratic society, the voicing out of ones opinions is as important as putting them into action. You need to present that idea first to the test of the public opinion and be able to defend that idea from hordes of criticism and questions to be able to convince the vast majority that your idea works. That is debate.

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So what did I get from the FPJ campaign? Entertainment only, but as to an assurance that he could best serve this country as our President? All I have are doubts. So why would I risk my vote to an inexperience high school dropout who refuses to tell the public how he would run this country? My conscience and my patriotic upbringing tell me not to cast my vote for him.

I hope you also do.