Noynoy Aquino: A Summary of What He Stands For

Taken from the cover story of the international investment magazine, Asian Tigers, February 2010 issue.

Beyond the call of official duty

… Ballsy Aquino Cruz, the oldest daughter, was overheard to have asked Noynoy over the phone, “Are you willing to give up six years of your life?”

It was a modest question, coming from someone who had served as her mother’s private secretary during her presidency. IN her humility she had forgotten to acknowledge that their lives had already been intertwined with that of our nation…suffering through their father’s imprisonment and assassination, their mother’s reluctant presidency and selfless dedication in service to the nation.

On September 9, 2009, the 40th day after the death of his mother Corazon Aquino, Noynoy Aquino announced his presidential bid. A text message that day suggested that if you multiplied the 9-9-9 by 3, you would get 27. His father Ninoy Aquino was born on November 27. Noynoy would run in 2010, 27 years after Ninoy’s assassination. Also, 9-9-9 was the 252nd day of the year. If you added the digits, it also yielded a 9. Is it his destiny?

In 1996, ten years after the historic EDSA Revolution, Cory Aquino may have been prophetic in her warning that:

Challenges to our freedoms continue to lurk in dark corners, some of them disguised as anti-crime legislation or as proposed constitutional reforms to streamline government.

They also come in the shape of recycled and unrepentant politicians, and discredited ideologues that would talk advantage of the democratic space, which the EDSA Revolution had created in our society.

But mostly, these challenges take the form of a general apathy among our people, a tendency to leave everything in the hands of the leaders, and just heap the blame on them if something goes wrong.

I believe that such apathy, which has allowed the return of discarded ideas and personalities in the highest levels of governance, goes against the spirit of EDSA. Our national situation demands nothing less than a return to, the revival of the Spirit that brought us all to the defense of the Republic, our people and the democratic way of life in the dark days of martial law, and into the dawning of a new day at EDSA.

I do not speak only of providing our warm bodies when needed to make a national statement, but a generosity of spirit, a sharing of our time, efforts, resources and our very lives if needed, to see to it that others might improve their lives.

I speak of living in the Spirit of EDSA in all our endeavors, whatever is our state and calling in life.

Beyond his father’s request to take care of his mother and sisters, armed with the courage of his parent’s, Noynoy’s SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH THE FILIPINO PEOPLE is a call to action. His platform is a commitment to change that Filipinos can depend on. With trust in their leaders, everyone can work and build a future together.

• He is committed to become the nation’s first and foremost fighter of corruption. Education is his central strategy, prioritizing jobs, protection of public health and equal justice to the rich and the poor.
  
  

• For the economy, he sees farms and rural enterprise as vital to achieving food security. His is a leadership that will execute all the laws of the land, with impartiality and decisiveness.
  
  

• He will create conditions conducive to the growth and competitiveness of private business, big, medium and small. He wants to create more jobs at home, but will prioritize the welfare and protection of overseas workers.
  
  
• He wants professional, motivated and energized bureaucracies with adequate means to perform their public service missions in government service. Selection should be based on integrity, competence and performance in serving the public good.
  
  
• His Mindanao policy will seek a broadly supported just peace and will redress decades of neglect of the Moro and other peoples of Mindanao.
  
  
• His is a government that will encourage the sustainable use of natural resources to benefit present and future generations.
  
  In his VISION FOR THE PHILIPPINES, Noynoy sees:
  
  

• A re-awakening sense of right and wrong, through the living examples of our highest leaders.
  
  
• An organized and widely-shared rapid expansion of our economy through a government dedicated to honing and mobilizing our people’s skills and energies as well as the responsible harnessing of our natural resources.
  
  
• A collective belief that doing the right thing does not only make sense morally, but translates into economic value as well.
  
  
• Public institutions rebuilt on the strong solidarity of our society and its communities.
  
  The MISSION which he has chosen to accept is that:
  
  We will start to make these changes first in ourselves by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and integrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to others over ourselves.
  
  When Noynoy announced his decision to run, Fr Manny Domingo, former parish priest of Don Bosco Makati, expressed what many Filipinos now feel: “I HAVE BEEN GIVEN HOPE.”

~Marisse Reyes,
Asian Tigers magazine

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