BY ROMMEL YNION
ORGANIZATION only mirrors the personality of its leader.
Nothing illustrates this axiom more than the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Noynoy, as he is fondly called by his friends and foes alike, is a person who has achieved nothing on his own in his life. Everything he now enjoys just fell on his lap: an illustrious family name, his material wealth and his political power.
Since Noynoy has not achieved anything with his blood, sweat and tears, he cannot relate to people who have accomplished so much in their lives. Subconsciously, he may even be resentful of the stature to which these high-achievers have ascended because of their efforts. They came, they saw, they conquered.
And Noynoy just came, slept, and became president. He never strove for anything on his own. The world has not even seen him buy a car nor a house borne out of his efforts. A do-nothing individual known for his lack of drive and ambition in his family just suddenly found the presidency served to him on a silver platter, a challenge that common sense dictates he was too ill-equipped to face.
Unto the manor born, Noynoy is unable to understand the meaning of persistence. That constant striving for success is alien to him. That’s why he sees high achievers in society as ants frolicking on an ant hill meant for him only to play with and see how they react to his bullying. When they cry, he laughs. When they get angry, he wonders why. When they fight back, he uses all his presidential powers to squish them.
To this spoiled brat, the world is just his toy. He plays with it to his heart’s content, laughing after he joked he would extend his term, amused when the people his government harassed retaliate like raging bulls, and pleased when he shoots high achievers high up in the sky and see them falling like meteors to earth.
Noynoy lacks the heart especially for high-achievers. That is why he has used the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to engage in a witch-hunt on self-made superstars of this country to the extent of destroying them. Almost always, without the benefit of due process, Kim Henares, who is the President’s hatchet woman in that agency, slaps them with tax-related cases based only on scraps of paper “uncovered” by their haphazard investigation.
Any observer gets a feeling that this administration only favors the oligarchy, that old rich boys club, nurturing their life-long aversion to the rise of the nouveau riche that may later on threaten their kingdom inherited only from their treasure-hunting and land-grabbing forbears. Ah, behind every great wealth is a great crime. The worldview that source of wealth can only come from the criminal world where everything is up for grabs especially to those who can bulldoze their way into success.
The tax case of Manny Pacquiao is a classic example of how this administration, borne out of their deep-seated jealousy of high achievers or self-made men, douses cold water on the fires of other Filipinos’ ambitions especially when they result in achievements perceived as detrimental to the interests of the powers-that-be.
At the risk of engaging in off-the-cuff psychoanalysis, Noynoy seems to be suspicious of high achievement because, subconsciously, he thinks it usually does grow on “trees” as his stature and wealth proved to be accessible to him since birth, always ripe for the picking, just at this beck and call, simply a no-sweat-kind-of-thing.
To him, the superstardom of Manny Pacquiao is not a stuff of legend but a toy that catches his fancy. And like his video games, the life of this world-famous Filipino boxer is now the object of Noynoy’s fancy. Noynoy, his mind unable to rise from toddlerhood, now wants to see how he reacts to situations he will create by unleashing his dogs of war, curious how the Pacman will parry their blows and counter-punches his way out of his predicament.
As of this writing, the Pacman has summoned to his aid the Supreme Court which has also been facing constant bombardment from Malacañang to keep the Court of Tax Appeals at bay, hell-bent as it is on putting his properties on auction to collect from him over P3 billion in allegedly unpaid taxes. Lawyers of the beleaguered pugilist have sworn on the altar of reason and common sense that the amount was way out of the ball park because if true, their client must have earned a net income of P25 billion to face that kind of tax liability. A shot in the dark at best, one of his lawyers averred.
If given the chance, the Court of Tax Appeals will waste no time stripping the Pacman of all his material wealth, driving him into penury. This after he has brought so much pride and honor to this county like no other Filipino did before or since he skyrocketed to international fame after pulverizing into obscurity the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Oscar De La Hoya.
As a sojourner in the United States, this writer has witnessed how revered Filipinos are especially on the streets of Las Vegas every time Pacquiao wins to the delight of his fans who flocked from all over God knows where to the Sin City just to watch him fight. Indeed, Pacquiao has taught the world how to fight a clean fight and win only to face a dirty fighter in Noynoy who, albeit playfully, seems obsessed with robbing him of everything that represents his heroism not only in the pugilistic ring but also in the hearts of his countrymen.
Alas, in the eyes of this do-nothing president, the world is just a video game, his presidential term just a time for jokes. Small wonder he just plays with the Supreme Court as if it’s just a sparring partner on his flat-screen monitor that has to be antagonized to make the “fight” more interesting. Small wonder it didn’t matter to him to joke about his term extension as if jokes could enliven his shell-shocked presidency. Small wonder he seems to be having a lot of fun thriving on a minefield of nothingness driven only by his delusions of glory.
No doubt we have a big question mark punctuating Noynoy’s presidency at this juncture of our nation’s history to which the answer only lies in the perfect storm now gathering in the future. There are now tiny little wars, albeit political in nature, within the bowels of this government and rumors of other forms of wars that are expected to engulf it, obliterating its existence from the face of the earth.
But Noynoy should not be surprised because his administration and the world it has created are just mere reflections of him./PN
