OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT

It’s a punchy technology, this “Alexa” of Amazon, that revolves around Wi-Fi to access everything from Google to various music-streaming services like Spotify.Alexa is not one software that would hesitate in responding to practically all questions about any topic. When asked about martial law, Alexa extracts data from the world wide web, which collectively highlights a 14-year period of human rights abuses and the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees, and similar human rights monitoring entities that there were 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 tortures, 77 disappearances and 70,000 incarcerations.

Alexa also knows too well that loan-funded public spending on massive infrastructure projects virtually mainstreamed corruption with an estimated spoil of around $10 billion. Alexa can also hook upon scholarly references in social media that would just belie anyone’s claim that the Marcos years were golden years for the Philippine economy. Numbers don’t lie, unless they are denied.

This Alexa factor, and everything it represents as cognitive help, is crucial as we enter the official start of the campaign period for national candidates early this week. Of the six leading presidential candidates, only Marcos, Jr. has remained elusive to those outside his camp.

Marcos, Jr. refused to attend the COMELEC hearing on his disqualification cases; we would not know his side of the story about his court conviction. He cried “biased” against Jessica Soho for the presidential interview. He excused himself from the KBP presidential forum based on an alleged conflict of schedule.

These presidential wannabes are no different from job applicants. They must fill up the application form, submit all documentary evidence of their personal circumstances, and schedule an interview. Normally, it is the recruitment department that sets the interview and the applicant may also be asked to appear before a panel of interviewers to determine his level of competence and maturity.

What Marcos, Jr. wants is to write his own rule of engagement. But his system denies the Filipino people the opportunity to know him better as a candidate. It is the right of any employer to secure all information to allow him to choose the best candidate. Marcos, Jr. appears to not want any of that. And his excuses were not acceptable to many. In an ordinary job interview, he would have been immediately turned down.

While the Philippine Constitution only provides for the very basic requirements for applicants for the presidency, we expect the applicants to possess superior qualifications because the presidency requires somebody with the vision and the ability to lead and administer the Republic. The president is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the head of the National Security Council. The president is also the chief architect of our economic and foreign policy, as well as national defense.

It is not correct therefore to simply dismiss the issues raised about Marcos, Jr.’s real educational attainment in Oxford. It was never about his lack of a proper college education, or at least one equivalent to what every Filipino company requires from its CEOs down to its security officers. It was the fact that he misled the public into thinking that he “graduated” from Oxford.

It is also crucial to put a closure to the issue of the Marcoses’ stolen wealth because Marcos Jr. continues to deny it, even as both the Swiss and US courts, and our very own Supreme Court have ruled that those billions of dollars were ill-gotten. Marcos, Jr. remains one of their claimants. He denied the existence of the Tallano gold bars, but only after many have already been convinced that they would be brought back to the Philippines for mass distribution. His high survey rating is proof of this. Again, his moral integrity is at issue here because he is running for president, and he will have control of the budget. Dismissing the issue as mere propaganda is dodging it, condescending at the very least.

Marcos, Jr.’s stand on the issue of human rights violations needs some clarification. When confronted with the number of deaths, incarcerations and disappearances, he simply questioned their source. Incredulous that he is not aware of martial law and its excesses because he was already 20 at its height. The winning presidential candidate is mandated to defend the Republic and uphold its Constitution that provides for the rule of law and respect of human rights. Marcos, Jr. should share with the voters his piece of mind, rather than sharing them endless social media postings.

We hate to see the outcome of this important election in May 2022 simply driven by incomplete information on the part of the Filipino voters, and whatever is available is simply derived from uncontrolled social media. Many years of conditioning may result in dispositional intolerance for more information and at some length, the real truth.

What we need today is an honest and competent leader who knows what levers to pull in the face of serious economic scarring and its impact on inequality and poverty, one who has the agility of thought and action to translate the ideas from the playbook to actual public policy and implementation. We don’t need a leader who is only good at stating — sometimes clouding — facts without specific plans. We need more than an Alexa.