| DIE HARD III |
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| Herman Tiu Laurel |
I was taken aback when one of my 19-year-old twins asked, “Pa, why aren’t you for Gibo?” This question from my son Enzo, who is a first year De La Salle philosophy student, was asked as we drove home his fellow Northfield alumnus, Miggy, after I picked them up from a party. The question reflects his deep thought about the political question of the day and I felt honored that he considered my view in such an earnest way. The question also reflects a concern of Enzo and his peers that I surmise stems from a perceived positive regard of the youth for Gibo and a need to understand why not everyone is thinking the same way. I started by explaining that the young often assume many things to be absolutely correct but discover soon enough, as they grow older and wiser, that these aren’t so true after all.
Admittedly, Gibo is very articulate and if that were the only basis for leadership, I, too, would be for him. But governance, I explained, is more than just articulation. It is about love for the people and standing by a firm conviction. I then asked: Who among the other nine presidential candidates have ever shown “conviction,” a strong belief in his own cause to risk and actually suffer detention for it?
Erap had always stood by his belief — and conviction — that the people’s welfare is a president’s chief responsibility — the reason he opposed hasty increases in power and water rates that made the oligarchs conspire with the Gloria Arroyo forces to remove him from power and later concoct crimes against him. Estrada believed in his own innocence that he refused exile and chose to stand detention and trial, up to the very end, when they had to pardon him after his kangaroo court conviction.
Further, Erap firmly believes it is the duty of the president to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic; hence, he never balked at wiping out rebellion in Mindanao and resisted foreign intervention.
I also injected Estrada’s concern for farm productivity, as seen in his “carabao breeding” program.
After we dropped Miggy off, that matter faded into oblivion until a week later when Enzo suddenly said: “Pa, you convinced Miggy to vote for Erap.”
Surprised, I asked him how I had convinced Miggy when we never got to talk directly about Erap. Enzo explained that his friend was listening from the backseat the whole time and as he listened to my explanation, he eventually got convinced to vote for Erap.
Given the youth’s mindset, it is no accident that certain candidates are triggering the “herd mentality” among the youth by creating trendy ads and fads that particularly target them.
Chiz Escudero, once the darling of the youth, started this early until his feet of clay collapsed from under him. ABS-CBN is targeting the youth not only for a candidate but for building its self-proclaimed patriotic and non-partisan media role — an empty boast belied by its history of political interventionism and Machiavellianism. The other oligarchs, on the other hand, have been constantly stalking the youth with their “I am Ninoy” type campaigns that feature various fashion pieces as a not-too-subtle push for their Yellow dummy. Then, as another subliminal appeal to the young, Villarroyo uses children’s voices in almost all his ads, too.
As tyrants over the centuries have known, the youth are easily manipulable as a mass of body and mind. From the so-called Hitler Youth to Mao’s Red Guards, to the Catholic Church’s Days with the Lord and Student Catholic Action, the youth have always been an indispensible adjunct. But as my narrative about Enzo and Miggy shows, the youth as individuals aren’t always dumb. We only have to treat them not as “the youth” per se but as individuals who have a clear mind and an innately sound moral foundation.
I imagine my narrative as a radio ad for President Estrada because I think it would really click and spread a chain reaction of Erap’s message, as it is happening among the masa. Let’s say with Eddie Garcia as the father and Angel Locsin and another young male celebrity, the youth will listen.
In the meantime, Estrada presses on with his fight against onerous power rates, as this space is doing, even as mainstream media continue to shut this voice out. At his March 19 jampacked press conference, “The Power Crisis in Mindanao,” at the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino headquarters on 409 Shaw, Estrada lashed out at the power crisis hoax created by the Arroyo regime and the oligarchs, and its danger to the elections.
Estrada proposed his practical approach of mobilizing for conservation and self-generation by big users and those with private generator-sets to protect the people from the crisis’ adverse effects, a vital news which only the Tribune carried in its front pages. That is how big and dangerous the power oligarchs’ lobby is, and it will take an Estrada leadership to face it head on — definitely, another issue that the youth can understand and resonate with.
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