Kris Aquino in politics: First Governor of Tarlac, then the Philippine Presidency!

March 25, 2013

by benign0

Ths real mission of the Second Aquino Presidency is in full swing as the groundwork for the ascent of the next Aquino to the presidency of the Philippines is now being lain. Family newsletter ABS-CBN News reports the almost unsurprising announcement from presidential sister Kris Aquino of her planned foray into politics…

The Queen of All Media pronounced her plan to run for governor of her home province, Tarlac, before thousands of her town mates Tuesday.

“I feel naman na bilang isang Aquino, whatever political career I hope to have in the future, it has to start in Tarlac,” she said.

Kris, along with her “Dalaw” leading man Diether Ocampo and Pokwang, led the gift giving activity in depressed areas in the province. From Tarlac, they went to 8 barangays in Pasig also to distribute gifts.

She clarified that she is only running in 2016 after Noynoy’s term of office.

It all certainly makes perfect sense. Kris Aquino is, after all, the only one amongst the Aquino brood who inherited her father’s charm, gift-for-gab, and celebrity genes. The others — including The Reluctant One himself, current Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III — on the other hand, have personalities just a bit more interesting than a doorknob. But why else would a reluctant scion of the powerful Aquino-Cojuangco feudal be made to run for president of the Philippines back in 2009? Perhaps because back then Kris wasn’t quite there yet in terms of readiness for the job — and she wouldn’t be when it mattered, not when the vast Hacienda Luisita teeters on the brink of subjection to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is coming due in 2014.

First the Governor’s seat in Tarlac, next that coveted seat in Malacañang. If the powers-that-be could engineer a national con at a scale that could get a man like BS Aquino elected president, how easy would it be to get Kris’s behind warming the president’s seat within the next couple of decades?

Too easy.

I wrote in a brilliantly prescient piece back in December 2011 why the prospect of a Kris Aquino presidency is very real…

The nature of Kris’s popularity it seems is fundamentally different from — and independent of — the engineered “popularity” that Noynoy Aquino surfed upon straight onto his comfy seat in Malacañang. What draws people to Kris Aquino is primal. What draws people to her brother Noynoy, on the other hand, is just plain stupidity.

The “magic” in all this lies in the fundamental character of the Filipino, one once astutely described by a modern-day philosopher as hopelessly starstruck…

You are a nation of star-struck ignoramuses. You are easily awed by your movie stars who are usually nothing but uneducated, aquiline-nosed and light-skinned ******** picked up from some gutter somewhere. I have seen what these artistas illusionadas can get away with. They just flash their capped-tooth smiles and policemen let them get away with traffic violations; they bat their false eyelashes and customs officers impose no duty on their suspicious balikbayan boxes.

Worst of all, with the Filipino movie industry taking a nosedive, hordes of actors and show personalities went into politics. It is, as they say, the next best “racket”-there is more money to be made in the politicking business than in show business! (And what is this I hear that in the coming elections, more are jumping into the arena? Mag-hara-kiri na kayo!) How can you expect these comedians and actors, who only know how to take directions from their directors, to direct your nation? For them,politics will just be an “act”. No big surprise here, for they are mere actors with no original scripts to speak, no original visions to share. So what can you expect but a government that is a comedy of errors. Serves you and your star- struck nation right!

In short, there is no magic. Philippine society is basically a con-man’s paradise. Its people are suckers for appeals to emotion, iconic images of “heroes”, no-substance cults of personality, and pedigree politics. It is a perfect environment for breeding the very sorts of politicians that “activists” love to hate. Indeed, in recent times even these very “activists” themselves have started to mirror these politicians; themselves engaging in colourful spectacle, circus freak shows, and publicity stunts to get their “message” across.

We wonder now. Will the forces of “civil society” that supported the ascent of President BS Aquino to power in the 2009-2010 presidential campaign support his sister’s bid to secure her place in the family dynasty? Seeing how even the ranks of the “politically-aware” have themselves overseen the further degeneration of the national “debate”, it is likely that Philippine politics will not get any more intelligent any time soon.

When the money at stake runs in the billions of pesos, no amount of “activist” campaigns to get Filipino politicians to tread the straight-and-narrow path leading to what is right will move anyone of consequence. Hacienda Luisita is certainly a big enough prize.