The two Philippine women presidents

The two Philippine women presidents

William Esposo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Asia News Network
Manila

Last December, I was invited to address a class at the Asian
Institute of Management (AIM) on how I compared the way Filipinos
regard the terms and the characters of the two Philippine women
presidents -- Corazon C. Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.This
was before President Macapagal-Arroyo made her historic Rizal Day
announcement to no longer run in 2004 and which thereby bought
her respite from the mounting public criticism and dismay over
her administration.

I was addressing the communications strategy class of former
Presidential Management Staff secretary Sonny Coloma, a dean at
the AIM and a regular columnist of the Businessworld. The
discussion took a clinical analysis of the net impressions the
two women presidents have on our people. Having organized and
managed the Cory Media Bureau for the 1986 Snap Campaign and
having worked for two years as a Macapagal-Arroyo communications
adviser from 1995 to 1997 (when she made a bid for the 1998
presidency but then only to drop out and settle for the Lakas-
NUCD VP slot) made me a suitable resource person.

The highlights of my comparison:

1. Cory Aquino came to the job with only the moral high ground
in tow, having nary any experience in governance and bereft of
the affected pretensions common among elected politicians.
Macapagal-Arroyo on the other hand came to the office
academically prepared, with a presidential pedigree from her
father, the former president, an executive and legislative
experience, and the highest number of votes ever gotten by a vice
presidential candidate.

2. Both women presidents came to the presidency via People
Power: EDSA I for Aquino and EDSA II for Macapagal-Arroyo. Both
their terms were marked by turmoil. Six coup attempts against
President Aquino and one uprising against President Macapagal-
Arroyo barely four months into her term.

3. Aquino to my view retained her following and to this day
continues to be regarded the Joan of Arc of Asia while Macapagal-
Arroyo is fast losing hers as followers shift focus back to their
original cause.

4. Aquino dedicated her term to people empowerment and the
ideals of EDSA I that made her president. Macapagal-Arroyo's
coalition has splintered amid widespread disillusionment over her
departure from the mandate of EDSA II. In business, the first and
foremost rule is to retain and secure market share. Macapagal-
Arroyo did not learn this lesson or may have simply forgotten it.

5. The people trusted Aquino while Macapagal-Arroyo suffered a
big credibility problem. I attribute the trust people had in
Aquino to the consistency of her actions. Her husband, the martyr
Ninoy, was also a contributing factor but even this would not
have mattered had Aquino had not been true to their shared
ideals.

On the other hand, Macapagal-Arroyo's husband, Mike Arroyo,
was her handicap: A male epitome of what I call the Imelda
syndrome. After Imelda Marcos, I maintained that all future First
Ladies or Gentlemen will have to deal with an overly suspicious
public who will tend to think that every First Lady or First
Gentleman is always the biggest Rasputin. Alas, for Macapagal-
Arroyo, Mike did not learn this lesson at all and is now
associated with just about every major scandal.

The court of public opinion does not operate in an
equilibrium. Much of what shapes public opinion come from
preconceived notions and biases which are further fueled by
deliberate disinformation, Goebbels-style. The misshapen
information is made even worse as each person tosses in his own
commentaries. Mike Arroyo forgot how Caesar's wife had to be seen
or did not realize that it also applied to Cleopatra's husband.

The core of the residual images and feelings Aquino and
Macapagal-Arroyo left with people centered on character. People
trusted Aquino. I am sad to say that the surveys corroborate the
perception of deep distrust for Macapgal-Arroyo. Both presidents
for instance shared an Iraq crisis during their respective terms.
It was the 1991 Gulf War for Aquino (waged by then U.S. president
George Bush) and for Macapagal-Arroyo it is the now looming
showdown between Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush.

But the actions taken by Aquino and Macapagal-Arroyo contrast
dramatically. Seeing that the greater national interest were
overseas Filipino worker jobs and the supply of oil which rested
in Arab hands, Aquino took a neutral stance. In contrast, even
amid the anti-war positions of U.S. allies like France, Germany
and Russia, Macapagal-Arroyo went on an all-out support for the
U.S. position. Her recent sortie to Kuwait was perceived as
another deception: She aids Bush promote war on one hand and
turns around to assure jobs and safety to those in the vicinity
of the war she just helped promote on the other.

Macapagal-Arroyo's Rizal Day announcement offered new
opportunities and even her strongest critics were inclined to
give her a chance to redeem her family's name in the pantheon of
presidents -- hoping to see the country improve with it. However,
too early in the year with barely a month and a half after her
announcement, political watchers and the suspicious public are
starting to see a course of action which belies her announcement
not to run. Action speaks louder than words and recent
presidential actions show that it is politics as usual.

Reliable sources have reported the existence of a separate
communications staff composed of former Estrada press secretary
Rod Reyes, former Marcos Office of Media Affairs chief Greg
Cendana, new Chief of Staff Rigoberto Tiglao and presidential
publicist Dante Ang among others. The group's first major
undertaking is to manage a "clamor for the president to
reconsider and run in 2004". The plan is to launch in the
provinces before "snowballing" to the national scene (a recent
Roxas City sortie seems to be the start of this plan). Per the
report we got, there is even a plan to tell the people in the
provinces, where pro-American sentiments run high, that U.S.
president George W. Bush is endorsing Macapagal-Arroyo "to run in
order to provide leadership during this time of crisis".

For the sake of Macapagal-Arroyo and the many who saw in her
decision not to run in 2004 a chance for better times, we must
just pray that none of these acts of deception are true. I
shudder to think of the impact it will have on the populace.
Before all these, I was one of those who dispelled the rumors
that a coup or another EDSA is in the works and called these as
nothing but wishful thinking by the doomsayers simply because I
know the promoters of these scenarios are an insignificant
minority with no real wide-scale national support.

But this deception, if true, could just about be the turning
point the doomsayers warn about -- a bloody system overhaul which
no one wants and I pray we never experience in our lifetime.
Macapagal-Arroyo must learn from Marcos who lost his presidency
when he lost his credibility. Losing his popularity and
eventually his army was but the product of lost Marcos
credibility.