Begin with an end in view. That sounds like a command from Stephen Covey of 7 Habits fame, reprimanding PBBM for disregarding a clear-cut end game for his “Mahiya naman kayo” anti-corruption crusade.
Five months after his most applauded State of the Nation Address, and after having survived one big INC rally, two Trillion Marches, talks of a junta, and a ranting Imee, Marcos nevertheless has yet to face a bigger challenge. He has to convince the doubting Thomases that he is squeaky clean and that he can take the bull of corruption by the horns, and thus frame a picture of a future where impunity has consequences and large-scale corruption ends with his term.
And while the fury of earlier rallies has considerably waned, Marcos seems to have found a new calling as his administration’s information-in-chief. Every breaking news item on the flood control probe, or any update on its main characters, draws the President to make an abbreviated report to the nation, either on television or through his podcast. In a way, PBBM has shifted the narrative from the raging demand for accountability to the President’s mellow delivery of the news.
But these are palliatives. This is the hiatus, the calm before the storm, played out while angry marchers enjoy their Christmas break.
Marcos has to do something fast. The political tempest will be out by the first quarter of the new year. A restless multitude will demand to see the big fish languishing in jail. VP Sara’s renewed impeachment will again occupy headlines and once more reinvigorate the Marcos–Duterte dichotomy.
It will be PBBM’s acid test to steer the ship of state amid the turmoil of political fray.
And he must have perfect tunnel vision to put an end to the biggest corruption in history. How he does it will mark his legacy as a leader who fought entrenched corruption, saw it through, and ended it with structural reforms to prevent its resurgence. But PBBM must do it now.
And by the way, it is the night before Christmas. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus, each of us has a story to tell of how Christmases past were spent. On this evening of piercing cold, my thoughts travel back in time to that rainy Christmas Eve in Puerto Princesa, when my family had just arrived to begin a new life in the capital town.
It was raining cats and dogs the whole night, and my mother, bless her soul, had run short of bread for noche buena. The task fell on me to brave the rain and go to Cosmos Bakery, then Puerto’s most famous bakeshop. It was dark and cold, and the distance from Manalo Street to the bakery on the other side of town felt daunting to a boy just beginning to find his way.
But I made my way, crisscrossing streets and dodging dogs, until I reached the edge of HTC where Cosmos was located. When I returned home with a basket of bread, drenched by rain and shivering in the cold, I could not contain my boyish pride at having completed the task.
When I saw my younger siblings wide awake, anxiously waiting as if I had gone on an epic journey, my joy knew no bounds.
That was Christmas long ago and far away, but the scene has lingered through the years. Perhaps, amid the noise and haste of Christmas, the child in us longs for the simplicity and raw emotion that the birth of Jesus brings. Unfortunately, in the thick of our preparations, we have lost our way to the manger and forgotten what truly matters every Christmas.
