So, my former boss and good friend Ferdie were drinking beer last night at Eton Centris when talk eventually came around to the supposed inevitability of a Binay Presidency.
One argument that is going around is that all candidates for the presidency are corrupt in one way or the other. That being the case, it is suggested that the only thing people ought to figure out is which among the “corrupt” presidential candidates can more effectively lead his administration to provide competent governance.
It is claimed that among the incipient candidates for president, it is Vice President Jejomar Binay who would have a track record for competent governance.
Among the business columnists who seem openly supportive of a Binay Presidency is Boo Chanco and in the latter part of one of his columns, he relates how happy he is with the benefits that the Binays are providing its citizens.
The entire column basically spells out the following points, which I think are kind of sound…
– Big businesses are pragmatic when it comes to presidential candidates.
– The larger voter demographic (the lower C-D-E socio economic classes) only care about the ‘benefits’ they can derive and in the case of Makati, that voter demographic seems pampered with free hospitalization, free birthday cakes and movies for senior citizens, etcetera (as Mr. Chanco points out).
– The middle class, those whom Chanco says are opposed to a Binay presidency, don’t really enjoy or receive any of the benefits provided.
One thing that strikes me in Chanco’s column and kind of confirms my thinking about Binay is this:
Curious to know how Binay interacts with the Makati Business moguls, I googled and found a speech he delivered before the MBC last year. It is clear from this speech that he knows what the MBC types want to hear. Here are snippets from that speech:“I distinctly recall meeting with a group of businessmen early in my term, where I made one simple promise: I will focus only on governance, and I will not meddle in business. I will work to provide the atmosphere for business to grow, but you must do your share in supporting the government, by among others, paying your taxes.
My thinking about Binay is that, basically, he’s the guy you get to take care of the “poor people” — because, if you boil it down, that’s what governance in a third world country like the Philippines is about.
If the Philippines were one big hacienda, he would probably be the hacienda boss — the guy that the landlord hires to haggle wages and benefits with the peasants as well as to keep them in check.
Supposing that this is in anyway an accurate figuring of what a Binay presidency boils down to, one question bears asking: Just how good is Binay as a hacienda boss anyway?
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