Grace and my worries

THE lawyer of Knights of Rizal, which has sued to stop Torre de Manila from being built behind Rizal’s statue at Luneta, argues that the monument is the “soul of the country.”

It’s iconic, having stood there for 102 years as part of the Luneta landscape. And it’s symbolic, being easily identifiable with the national hero and reminder of the life he gave up for his motherland.

But is the edifice the country’s soul? Maybe as hyperbole in Rizal Day oratory, but not in an argument before the Supreme Court which must have room only for hard facts and cold logic.

Besides, as an associate justice put it during oral argument, it would be “tyrannical for the court to establish Rizal’s narrative.”

The court will decide on basic areas of conflict: right of the state to limit use of private property and right of the developer to protect his money and property.

There’s also the matter of good faith, the developer having complied with state requirements, including approval by the National Historical Commission, which should know better what taints or impairs historical values.

Failure The controversy is due mainly to failure of regulation and delay in public response: why had this scrutiny not been stepped up before the building could rise beyond the seven-storey limit?

And it’s not helping any to magnify the degree of loss: the monument or the country’s soul being destroyed.

Besides, Rizal knights, what kind of soul would that be if could be wrecked by mere “photo-bombing” of the hero’s statue?

THE truth is, we still do not know how many corners next year’s presidential election will have. What we hold now are mere conjectures. Like, will Sen. Grace Poe run for president as what many people, including Sens. Sergio Osmeña III and Vicente Sotto III, believe? I think so, but I can’t be sure until Poe makes the formal announcement.

Postponing the announcement, though, can be a good strategy for Poe. Just look at Vice President Jejomar Binay, who announced his intention to run for president in 2016 immediately after he assumed the VP post in 2010. Now he is damaged goods, although he is continuing to pretend he isn’t. Note that even now that Poe is still holding her cards to her chest, she is being attacked already.

Poe’s case is intriguing because of two things. One, her rating in surveys on presidential wannabes is up there. Two, she is battling Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas for President Noynoy Aquino’s anointment. That explains the attention media and other politicians have been giving to her. But aren’t we overestimating her qualities as potential president?

I like what a columnist of a Manila newspaper wrote about Poe. Indeed, the bottom line is still qualification and not one’s rank in popularity surveys. We all know how the good senator reached this point: she outstripped Binay in the survey ratings. Thus the President wooed her and groups like the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) want her to be their candidate for president.

But without the survey ratings, would her qualification have been enough for her to be considered a presidentiable? This needs to be asked because survey ratings rise or fall depending on the mood of the people. When that happens, a wannabe should have strong enough credential to sustain him/ her through the brutal campaign.

Consider Aquino when he ran for president in 2010. His rating in the surveys was up there when he declared his candidacy. He was subjected to relentless and malicious attacks but survived because he had one thing going for him: he is the son of two martyred and revered leaders of the country and was thus perceived to be incorruptible, meaning competent enough to see through his “Daang Matuwid” vow.

One issue that the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay has been zeroing in so far is about citizenship and, by extension, patriotism. Grace at one time lived in the United States and was once an American citizen. In one his sorties, Binay said, “Kapunapuna, unang-una na, ang mga Pilipinong ipinanganak na Pilipino ngunit itinakwil ang pagka-Pilipino, at naging mamamayan ng ibang bansa.” I also expect the citizenship issue to be eventually brought to court just to pull down Poe’s candidacy. Legal minds are divided on whether Poe met the residency requirement for a candidate for president. Then there’s the matter of association. If Poe runs for president, she will have to do so as an “independent” because Roxas will surely be the administration’s standard bearer. Roxas will be running on the platform of continuing the “Daang Matuwid” governance. Poe couldn’t hold on to that line because by then she will be associated with a set of politicians different from when she was still ally of the administration. Even now, politicians displaced under the Aquino administration and hoping to recover their “relevance” will see Poe as their “saving Grace” (pun intended). And while Poe claims to be independent-minded, his other weakness, lack of experience in governance, could make her vulnerable to the schemes of trapos-cum-influence peddlers. At least, that’s my worry.