The Construct

That probably happened to you. You fancied trying out a restaurant for the first time. You plunk down on your seat. You flip through the menu from end to end. Then you flip through it again. There’s not one thing that you’d like to eat. Then you think whether you’d get up and leave or just settle for what you think is their most palatable dish even if it’s named “Binarurot na Tambakol” or something.

That’s exactly the feeling I have looking at the choices among the candidates for president in the 2010 elections. Here are my current takes on the presidential candidates.

• Noynoy Aquino – The guy thinks that the presidency is a birthright. Not to mention that he doesn’t have any accomplishments to boot. If this guy wins, Kris will be the most powerful woman in the country.
• JC de los Reyes – Uh. Yeah. This guy.
• Jamby Madridal – Not really aware of her agenda so pretty hard to tell. Has a bit of a leftist leaning.
• Erap Estrada – ~@_@~ (Not a big fan of emoticons, but come on…)
• Dick Gordon – Good administrator from what you can see from SBMA track record so he just might be a good chief executive. He seemed to have slacked off for the past years though. And he’s running with Bayani.
• Gibo Teodoro – On paper, one of the better candidates. But he’s running as the administration’s The Chosen One so he’s like steak with shit as gravy.
• Eddie Villanueva – I don’t seem to be comfortable with voting a guy who straddles that line between Church and State as Head of State?
• Manny Villar - The “I wuz poor” thing has gotten old. He’s been rich for so long.

The thing is, with a dish, you really won’t know if it’s any good unless you’ve tried it.

For those who watched professional wrestling, there’s a term they use for positive cheers – “pop.” The easiest way to get a pop is to mention the town in which they hold an event or refer to something of patriotic in nature. Americans (at least wrestling fans) just love chances to do a “USA! USA!” chant. That’s what they call a “cheap pop.”

Noynoy Aquino announced that he will be running for president in 2010. There he was, flashing the old “L” (Laban) sign. A cheap pop if I ever saw one. A cheap pop indeed.

All this whole Noynoy running for president was simply triggered by the death of his mother. Some consider it a resurrection of the whole People Power sentiment but it’s simply a play on people’s nostalgia as far as I am concerned. Perhaps even an opportunity for some other personalities to get some babyface brownie points while at it.

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I had an interesting discussion with my English majors last Thursday in a discussion on the language of politics. Hot off the USC elections, the group in charge made references to the parties and their campaign tactics. It was interesting how they dissected the language and the context and probed the factors that may have affected the vote.

Thoughts came out. The language/variety used in the campaign (English/Taglish/Filipino). The (faulty?) analogy of STAND-UP as the GOP of UP. Parties claiming to bring about change. The focus on student services over idealism. Issues of racism against Filipino-Chinese students prior to the election (during the SR referendum). The number of Filipino-Chinese students in KAISA (probably related to the race issues). The population and demographics of each college. The great number of “burgis” freshmen voting. The electronic voting possibly being rigged…

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Probably not Google itself. But check out this AdSense ad posted beside a YouTube video of his speech:

Which means someone is buying keywords so that “Obama” as keyword will generate paid-for links to anti-Christ websites. Crazy people.

Obama for ’08!

So far, as of 6:36 AM, NAMFREL marks Chiz Escudero as leading the Senate race. For a quick tally updates, visit Inquirer.net.

He’s followed by Loren Legarda (whom a former professor made buking as one who totally sucked in Comm I), Ping, Noynoy, Manny, Kiko, Cayetano, Joker, Gringo, Trillanes, Angara and Koko.

While it’s still too early to judge, I only expect a few changes in the lower ranks and a few seat exchanges here and there. So far, it seems like it’s a same-old-same-old lineup for the senate with a few new faces but not so fresh in terms of political exposure.

And would you look at that, we’ve got three ex-military men in the fold (correct me if I’m wrong) in Lacson, Honasan, and Trillanes. Jeez, if they win, guess what favors the military can ask from the brods. Mind us that the Senate also has a say on the budget. Our country and our bloated, runaway military budget. Tsk. We’re our own Vietnam.

Hey, Kiko and Koko! Nice word play on their names. Maybe they can have their own senate sideshow featuring that darned mascot Koko Kwikwak. If they both win, that is. In any case, everyone else can dress up in chicken suits and do the chicken dance. It’s a circus, anyway.