“Binay: Rich out to get me” is the headline of the Philippine Star today about VP Binay’s interview at a Pagadian City radio station during which he was quoted to have said ”The rich do not want people who come from poor families to rise to the highest position in the country."
The plaint is another addition to the complaint about a conspiracy coded “Oplan Nognog” supposedly conceived by cabinet man Mar Roxas y Cia to frustrate VP Binay’s presidential aspirations.
Lest similar warning words be cast by a certain RexVTeczon, who had made threatening tweets on Twitter against APO Jim Paredes for tweetings about VP Binay, it should be emphasized here that this post is not so much about VP Binay but more about the reports about VP Binay so that any reference to VP Binay’s person is merely incidental and not specifically intentional.
The plaint is another addition to the complaint about a conspiracy coded “Oplan Nognog” supposedly conceived by cabinet man Mar Roxas y Cia to frustrate VP Binay’s presidential aspirations.
Lest similar warning words be cast by a certain RexVTeczon, who had made threatening tweets on Twitter against APO Jim Paredes for tweetings about VP Binay, it should be emphasized here that this post is not so much about VP Binay but more about the reports about VP Binay so that any reference to VP Binay’s person is merely incidental and not specifically intentional.
The cited statement of VP Binay is just as oxymoronic as the other reported explanations made by him or persons associated with him in refutations of the charges concerning (not against since, as they say, there are no charges filed against him) him for the overpriced Makati buildings and Hacienda Binay, just like the song about one pointing a finger at one’s neighbor but with his three fingers pointing back at him. Since words and letters mean differently to different men, a reprise of these surprising (as in mahirap isipin kung bakit naisip nila) statements should place them in different perspectives para mabawasan ang gulo in much the same way that Erap, when asked to comment on the criticism that the construction, which the Manila City Council approved, of the Torre de Manila ay Torre na mali pala because it mars the view of the Rizal monument at the Luneta, quipped “Nasa anggulo lang yan!”
His statements “I am fighting Goliaths” (at a convention of the Boy Scout of the Philippines) vis-à-vis “I am the Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines” (before lawyers of the Public Attorney’s Office) should be a warning to the Goliaths since they are practically midgets and weakling before the loftiness and power of his position. Or it could also be interpreted to mean “Just wait until I become the President of the Philippines.”
He had earlier criticized the Aquino administration for what he called a selective justice which targets members of the opposition but goes easy on those close to it. But then he is a member of that administration and he himself has repeatedly avowed that he is a PNoy ally with a bond that would stay break-less with time. If he then considers himself being persecuted, then he is the best example that under the administration, walang sinisino, walang sinasanto.
In refusing to attend the senate investigation, he explains that he won’t dignify it with his presence. But, he continues to dignify and validate the allegations against him with his explanations, which, however, seem to be taken by many with a bucket-full of salt, faulted with a lot of bakit.
He considers the senate as an improper forum, yet he treats any other venue in which he is unilaterally able to expound on his thoughts, sans the searching questions to be answered under oath in the senate, as the proper forum.
And now he is putting on the ritz. He did not specify who are those he is referring to as rich or what financial threshold should be the determinant for those who do not want him to become president. Senators Enrile, Estrada, Revilla, Erap, Jonvic Remulla, Toby Tiangco and perhaps JV Bautista (with his academic pedigree should have greatly risen above the average level of poverty) and even two of the Binay siblings who reportedly reside at Dasmarinas Village, a known enclave for the super rich, which should also include, by his own account, alleged dummy Tony Tiu. But he limits the denotation of the word rich to “rich people like Mar Roxas." But then again, why attribute to Mar, and perhaps a few others, the sentiments of the rich in general?
That ”the rich do not want people who come from poor families to rise to the highest position in the country” would not exactly be true. And even assuming this to be so, the rich are negligible come election time since the poor voters outnumber them. Cong Dadong Macapagal was perhaps of far humbler origins, yet he was still referred to as the “poor boy from Lubao (Pampanga)” even when he has already outgrown his roots. Presidents Quirino, Garcia, Marcos, Ramos may not have grown up poor like Binay, but their parents were not also rich like Mar’s, yet they become presidents.
Binay’s tirade against the rich (which should now include him (the reported anomalies notwithstanding and even just on the basis of his SALN) is just the ordinary political rhetoric bellowed in every pre-elections and exemplified by the usual cry “mas mahal na ang pan de sal.”
A more interesting question is, at current settings, why would the rich not want the VP to be the P. The answer could very well be hidden in the VP’s aspirations and exasperations. Since childhood, he had aimed for the highest post of the land. So, with his poor origins, how did he manage to rise above the poverty level? The newspaper ads with the blarbs “Ganito kami sa Makati” or “Kung ano ang nagawa ko sa Makati, magagawa ko rin sa bayan” may provide an answer. He takes pride that in Makati, cakes are baked for the living, flowers are laid at the dead, and movies are for seniors to see, all for free. These are the very subject of the on-going inquiries upon which the anti-rich and pro-poor statements are now uttered.
Erap, on his prosecution and conviction for official misfeasance, still insists na wala siyang ninakaw kahit isang kusing sa kaban ng bayan. This might all be true. But the kaban ng bayan need not be the only source of cash for any public official. Jueteng pay-offs is one, a condominium unit for a permit is another. And all of these can only come from the rich.
Some have described certain persons, including politicians, as the Robin Hood type: they take from the rich to give to the poor. But Robin Hood, of my childhood literature, was himself rich, an English earl no less. He and his band of merry men took from the rich what the rich had earlier taken from the poor and returned these to the poor. But the current brand of greedy men either take from the rich but do not give it to the poor or take what is intended or programmed for the poor. To justify these, they resort to arguments which are not acceptable to the rich but easily gobbled up by the gullible poor. As one colleague advised, if you can’t convince them, confuse them. The explanations being foisted upon the public only serve to muddle up and blacken the issues, yet these might just succeed. And if they do, one can only exclaim “Jemarjo,” or in the vernacular “Susmaryosep.”
His statements “I am fighting Goliaths” (at a convention of the Boy Scout of the Philippines) vis-à-vis “I am the Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines” (before lawyers of the Public Attorney’s Office) should be a warning to the Goliaths since they are practically midgets and weakling before the loftiness and power of his position. Or it could also be interpreted to mean “Just wait until I become the President of the Philippines.”
He had earlier criticized the Aquino administration for what he called a selective justice which targets members of the opposition but goes easy on those close to it. But then he is a member of that administration and he himself has repeatedly avowed that he is a PNoy ally with a bond that would stay break-less with time. If he then considers himself being persecuted, then he is the best example that under the administration, walang sinisino, walang sinasanto.
In refusing to attend the senate investigation, he explains that he won’t dignify it with his presence. But, he continues to dignify and validate the allegations against him with his explanations, which, however, seem to be taken by many with a bucket-full of salt, faulted with a lot of bakit.
He considers the senate as an improper forum, yet he treats any other venue in which he is unilaterally able to expound on his thoughts, sans the searching questions to be answered under oath in the senate, as the proper forum.
And now he is putting on the ritz. He did not specify who are those he is referring to as rich or what financial threshold should be the determinant for those who do not want him to become president. Senators Enrile, Estrada, Revilla, Erap, Jonvic Remulla, Toby Tiangco and perhaps JV Bautista (with his academic pedigree should have greatly risen above the average level of poverty) and even two of the Binay siblings who reportedly reside at Dasmarinas Village, a known enclave for the super rich, which should also include, by his own account, alleged dummy Tony Tiu. But he limits the denotation of the word rich to “rich people like Mar Roxas." But then again, why attribute to Mar, and perhaps a few others, the sentiments of the rich in general?
That ”the rich do not want people who come from poor families to rise to the highest position in the country” would not exactly be true. And even assuming this to be so, the rich are negligible come election time since the poor voters outnumber them. Cong Dadong Macapagal was perhaps of far humbler origins, yet he was still referred to as the “poor boy from Lubao (Pampanga)” even when he has already outgrown his roots. Presidents Quirino, Garcia, Marcos, Ramos may not have grown up poor like Binay, but their parents were not also rich like Mar’s, yet they become presidents.
Binay’s tirade against the rich (which should now include him (the reported anomalies notwithstanding and even just on the basis of his SALN) is just the ordinary political rhetoric bellowed in every pre-elections and exemplified by the usual cry “mas mahal na ang pan de sal.”
A more interesting question is, at current settings, why would the rich not want the VP to be the P. The answer could very well be hidden in the VP’s aspirations and exasperations. Since childhood, he had aimed for the highest post of the land. So, with his poor origins, how did he manage to rise above the poverty level? The newspaper ads with the blarbs “Ganito kami sa Makati” or “Kung ano ang nagawa ko sa Makati, magagawa ko rin sa bayan” may provide an answer. He takes pride that in Makati, cakes are baked for the living, flowers are laid at the dead, and movies are for seniors to see, all for free. These are the very subject of the on-going inquiries upon which the anti-rich and pro-poor statements are now uttered.
Erap, on his prosecution and conviction for official misfeasance, still insists na wala siyang ninakaw kahit isang kusing sa kaban ng bayan. This might all be true. But the kaban ng bayan need not be the only source of cash for any public official. Jueteng pay-offs is one, a condominium unit for a permit is another. And all of these can only come from the rich.
Some have described certain persons, including politicians, as the Robin Hood type: they take from the rich to give to the poor. But Robin Hood, of my childhood literature, was himself rich, an English earl no less. He and his band of merry men took from the rich what the rich had earlier taken from the poor and returned these to the poor. But the current brand of greedy men either take from the rich but do not give it to the poor or take what is intended or programmed for the poor. To justify these, they resort to arguments which are not acceptable to the rich but easily gobbled up by the gullible poor. As one colleague advised, if you can’t convince them, confuse them. The explanations being foisted upon the public only serve to muddle up and blacken the issues, yet these might just succeed. And if they do, one can only exclaim “Jemarjo,” or in the vernacular “Susmaryosep.”