BY ROMMEL YNION
YOU have a problem? That’s good!
Haven’t you noticed that everything you have achieved in life is just a product of a problem you had before? It simply means then that every problem we face is not bad news at all but in fact the best thing that has happened to us.
Take, for instance, the problem we now have with PNoy administration. He is absolutely a pain in our necks. Nothing good has happened since he took the helm of government.
The president then is the problem. But that’s good! At least now, we know what to do in the next elections. We learn from all his mistakes and make sure that we don’t elect into the presidency again somebody as incompetent as him.
The most important thing we have learned from PNoy’s style is that good intentions are not enough to solve problems and turn them into assets. Now, pushing to his fifth year in office, PNoy has brought nothing but misery to this country.
Now, we know that next time we have to choose a president, it has to be somebody who could see the big picture and work around it to get things done, not a hypocrite who sees only himself as the key to everything.
Another thing we have to weigh and consider is that if surveys are true, then the next president will most likely be Jojo Binay.
But the issue against Binay is that he himself is now struggling to extricate himself from a quicksand of corruption cases. He now faces charges of overpricing Makati government buildings and pocketing huge amounts as kickbacks from contractors.
Since we were not born yesterday, we believe that there is at least some truth to all these allegations. C’mon, they can’t just be dismissed outright as hogwash. Bottomline: Jojo Binay is not a saint.
The big question mark hanging above his head is, therefore, a problem. But that’s good! At least now, we can think more deeply about this man. Does he deserve our vote? Or not? If not, who are the other choices we have? Now, let us see.
The other options that stare us in the face are Mar Roxas, Bong-bong Marcos, Alan Cayetano, and Rodrigo Duterte. These are the names that have surfaced so far in the arduous run-up to the presidential derby in 2016.
Now, let’s take a look at each of them briefly.
Mar Roxas is so far the only presidential wannabe who has not been slapped with any corruption-related case. But does this make him squeaky clean? Again, we were not born yesterday and we obviously don’t buy the idea that he has not committed any sin against God and man all his life. Does Mar deserve then to be our next president?
Bong-bong Marcos, too, is another option. No graft and corruption cases in his name. Of course, being a son of a former president who earned a space in the Guinness Book of World Records for his notoriety as a world-class thief doesn’t make him a thief. So far, so good. Bong-bong has done well as governor, congressman, and now senator. Can he become the next president then?
Alan Cayetano is also at the receiving end of plunder cases filed against him and his wife. We all know that this can’t just be “political harassment”. They both need to answer these charges and prove themselves innocent of these allegations.
Rodrigo Duterte is the symbol of vigilante killings in Davao City. A very colorful political persona that has dealt a deathblow to many a criminal syndicate in his city can be the answer to all the criminality all over our archipelago. Who knows? Duterte could be the panacea to everything that has troubled this nation for ages.
Now, if surveys say something, it is that none of the above could triumph over Binay if elections were held today. So, if winnability is an issue they all have to face, then we now face a problem of lacking enough choices in the next presidential elections.
Oh boy, that’s really a problem. But that’s good! At least now, we can zero in on the ones who will most likely have a fighting chance to win and become the next president of our republic and pray to God that whoever wins among them will not become another pain in the neck like PNoy has been for the past four years.
See? If you have read up to this point, you can see how problems – faced with a positive mental attitude as punctuated by exclaiming “That’s good!” in the face of each problem – can lead to their own solutions. In this case, we ended up realizing that only God can, in the end, decide who among them could be president.
Therefore, the lesson we just learned today is that with a positive mental attitude, we always realize that we need God. We can,t do everything alone. We can,t have all the answers. We simply can,t have everything. But with Him, everything is possible.
By facing each problem with a that-is-good mentality, we exemplify faith, knowing that with faith, we will always get to the root of them all which in this case is the fact that no doubt, we need to leave something to God to work on in the process of solving our problems.
Let us then start saying “That’s good!” to each problem we face and like what we did just now, get to the bottom of things and put them in God’s perspective from which hope springs eternal./PN
