Happiness is not presidential
A President must never be seen enjoying anything. The President must work. His forehead must be permanently furrowed.
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Daily Tribune
A President must never be seen enjoying anything. The President must work. His forehead must be permanently furrowed.
Bongbong will watch Formula One. In Singapore.
Terrible. Possibly the end of the Philippines.
Who will run the country? Certainly not the Cabinet. The governors? Mayors? No.
Bongbong must personally be watching over the Philippines at all times.
One glance at a Ferrari, and Mindanao may detach and drift toward Indonesia. Two hours of enjoyment, and Luzon could lose electricity. Mayon might erupt because nobody is supervising it. China will look across the sea, see the President drooling over a McLaren, and shout: “Now!”
A President must never be seen enjoying anything. The President must work. His forehead must be permanently furrowed. His rice must always be cold. His chair should destroy his spine.
Ideally, rain should fall on him indoors.
Now that’s a President!
How can he watch expensive cars racing round and round when Filipinos can’t even get a jeepney ride?
The President cannot be eating steak while one Filipino is hungry. No air-con while somebody has to sleep in the heat. No presidential car while gas prices are sky-high. No laughing until inflation is down to zero. Actually, no smiling. Smiling is very elitist, shows you have nice teeth, while many Filipinos have none.
And absolutely no vacations until every pothole is filled, every classroom built, floods drained, every criminal arrested, farmer prosperous, hospital fully staffed, traffic eliminated, the peso strengthened, corruption abolished, and every Filipino personally calls Malacañang to say he’s happy.
Now some dangerous extremists will tell you human beings need to rest and relax. We let surgeons rest before cutting somebody open. Regulate the working hours of pilots. We become nervous when the bus driver has not slept.
But the man making decisions affecting an entire country? Keep him going. More coffee. No sleep. No hobbies. Run him ragged until smoke is coming out of his ears.
That is leadership. Because the important thing is not whether the President actually performs his job.
Please. It’s complicated. Very. Budgets and numbers. Outcomes. Boring. The important thing is the President must never appear to be having a better weekend than you.
And when finally he is exhausted, sweaty, irritated, sleep-deprived, we can look upon the leader of the republic and say: At last, public service.
We used to want government to help the poor live better. Maybe one day you’ll not be outside the grandstand looking in. Maybe you’ll be in it. Maybe your children will.
That was the idea. Very ambitious, apparently, so we found something easier. Don’t get us into the grandstand. Get Bongbong out of it.
Nobody has to become richer. Nobody has to fix anything. With enough outrage, maybe nobody gets to have a nice Sunday. There. Equality.
We spend our lives trying to get something better. Better job, better house, better food. Air-con, finally. Nobody wakes up under a kulambo and tells his children: “Study hard. Someday you, too, will still be right here.”
But then Digong eats in a carinderia and sleeps under a kulambo.
Inspirational. “Grabe. Parang tayo lang.” Yes, just like us.
A man of the people.
Historic. A rich man eating sardines is humble. A poor man eating sardines will be out of sardines tomorrow. The poor will remain poor, but for one supper they were in excellent company.
We should want a country where ordinary Filipinos can slowly begin to live like a president.
The dream didn’t come true, so we clapped when the president came down to our level, and forgot that the idea was for us to go up to his.
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