Moms Know Best

Here is the Daily Manila Standard article, today is from my constant favorite, Jojo Robles.

Moms and Politicians

My mother turned 80 this month. And if I lose my mind and decide to run for office, I cannot promise that I will not to ask her to vouch for my fitness as a candidate.

At the very least, I think I can always rely on my own mother to defend me to people outside the family, no matter what. And I don’t even have to be Jason Ivler to know that to be true.

Still, Mother’s Day has come early to the campaign, after Manny Villar allowed his 86-year-old mother Aling Curing, formerly of the Divisoria Market’s fish section, to go before television cameras in his defense. The deployment of the former shrimp vendor in the campaign was roundly (and ironically) criticized by another candidate, Joseph Estrada, who used to be no slouch in the mom-using department himself when his own mother Doña Mary Ejercito was still alive.

It’s certainly a good thing that the candidate with the most famous mother in the current field was quiet about the matter, given his own exploitation of his parentage, even in death. Front-running bet Noynoy Aquino, after all, cannot speak for five minutes without referencing his politically sainted mother—almost always in the same breath that he mentions his equally venerated father.

Erap says he shielded his mother from bad news about his son, especially during the impeachment proceedings against him that led to his ouster and incarceration nearly a decade ago. But that did not stop him, once detained on plunder charges, from asking the Sandiganbayan to leave his cell to be by the side of his ailing mom on a regular basis.

“I have to get out of here to be with my sick mom,” Erap routinely pleaded the court hearing his case of plundering the public coffers. And he would return to jail a couple of days after, looking like he did more than just visit the terminally ill.

Doña Mary died last year at the age of 103. By that time, Erap was already long out of jail and was already making noises about running again for the presidency that he insists was grabbed from him by the Evil Society.

Assuming his mother was still alive, it’s quite possible that Estrada would still have shielded her from the bad news that he may never win his old post back again. But at least he won’t be invoking her name anymore in order to get out of detention.

All this talk about mothers reminds me of an oft-quoted line about Aquino, by the way. Many of the Yellow candidate’s supporters seem to take it as gospel that Noynoy will not steal, as he has repeatedly promised, because that would be an affront to his dearly departed mom and dad.

The way I see it, you don’t have to be born to Ninoy and Cory Aquino to disgrace your parents by stealing. And would that mean that people born to less illustrious parents are more likely to steal, simply because they came from people who are not nationally famous?

On the other hand, having been born to “good stock” has never been a guarantee that someone will not steal, especially once appointed to government. Unfortunately for the Noynoy fans, there is simply no way to tell that their candidate will not dip his hands in the public till, as well, simply because he is the son of Ninoy and Cory, if he becomes president.

Having said that, the farmers in Hacienda Luisita are already of the opinion that Noynoy and his forebears have been stealing from them for more than half a century. That’s because, since the Cojuangco family acquired the vast sugar-growing estate in the fifties using government funds, they have not delivered on their promise to distribute the plantation to the tillers there—which was a condition for the government loans that the family secured to buy the land in the first place.

All things considered, I think psychologists will not find an ounce of evidence to support Noynoy’s claim that he is genetically unpredisposed to thievery because of his supposedly unsullied parentage. Even all the Jesuit psychologists of Ateneo will be hard-pressed to back up that claim.

If anything, I’d wager that those born well are more prone to theft, especially if they have fallen on hard times and need to maintain the lifestyles that they’ve grown accustomed to. Assuming that the poor are more susceptible to crime simply because they do not have reputations to lose is not only elitist, but also unsupported by fact—and an insult to the millions of poor but morally upright parents who strive to bring up their children well.

But going back to Erap, it’s safe to say that Doña Mary was an upright woman who would never have allowed any of her children to steal. And yet a court of law has found her famous son guilty of plundering the country—no wonder he kept the news from his mom.

The fact is, while all politicians promise not to steal, once elected, they start doing just that. And it doesn’t matter who they’re born to.

Just don’t tell that to their moms, of course.

* * *

Sometimes, the reason an Internet fan page doesn’t get any new fans is because there aren’t any. But don’t tell this to the Aquino campaign.

The Noynoy camp is on the warpath once again, this time over the alleged hacking of his Internet Web site, which tracks supporters through the popular online social networking phenomenon called Facebook. The Aquino campaign says hackers in the employ of his rivals have caused his fan page to lose about 16,000 fans so far, possibly because they hacked into the candidate’s Facebook account.

Correct me if I’m wrong, Mr. Chin Wong, but why should it matter to anyone if people are being prevented from registering as the candidate’s supporters on Facebook, either intentionally or not? Unless the coming automated voting now also allows the denizens of Farmville and Mafia Wars to vote from their computers, the number of people who sign up as Noynoy fans through the Internet shouldn’t even be worth mentioning outside of the Yellow headquarters.

Understand, I get where these people are coming from: Not content with leading the survey wars, the Yellow horde also wants to make sure it wins the Battle for Facebook, as well. Or, relatedly, they are now foisting upon us a scenario of high-tech cheating, possibly as a dry run for the counting of the actual May 10 vote.

Aquino and his camp, after all, have repeatedly said that if the Liberal bet loses the election, he will have been cheated. Not only that, they repeatedly warn of a new “people power” uprising if their candidate is not declared the winner in the polls next month.

That’s why any dip in the number of people who sign up as Noynoy’s Facebook fans will always be construed by his camp as an attempt to rob him of his “mandate.” If he’s being cheated on Facebook, he will be cheated elsewhere, is how this twisted logic goes.

After all, what are the people already named to the new Aquino Cabinet going to do with their already-ordered formal wear if Noynoy doesn’t get to Malacañang? I’m not really sure, but I’ve heard that some of them will go back to tending their virtual farms and shooting virtual gangsters on, yes, Facebook.