The Extracurricular Being

I was about to write an article about the "Three Wisemen" in this blog. To be particular, I was about to highlight their educational platforms.  But the circumstances kept me from doing so.

And now that the race is coming to an end soon, I would instead pay tribute to the three most qualified presidential candidates with the most beautiful educational platforms. Gibo, Dick, and most especially Ka Nick, thanks for putting up a good fight. 

We will forever be grateful for giving us, the Filipino people, beautiful choices so to speak.

I'm not pro-Noynoy, but this morning I read an article in the internet saying that the stock market has rebounded significantly due to the generally successful election, with Erap's corrupt plans goint down the drain. So that being said, we have to respect the election results and accept defeat if we are supporting other candidates.  I may not have voted for Noynoy, but I am fully supporting him as the legitimately elected President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Winning is good, but raising winners is a lot better.

That has been one of my guiding principles in life since time immemorial.  There must be more to success than just self-serving achievements.  Rather, our accomplishments must also advance the welfare of our neighbors.

The said principle especially suits well with my counter-academic beliefs.  I have always viewed education as something that should be more than just high grades and degrees.  Instead, true education is something that must uphold the welfare of the society.

But unfortunately, no matter how we try to promote the virtue of social responsibility, there are still people - well-known and powerful people - whose misplaced ideals continue to influence us all in a horribly crooked way.

Below the belt

A very good example is when Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino-Yap, or more popularly known as Kris Aquino, came to the rescue of his brother Benigno "Noynoy" Cojuangco Aquino III who is currently running for president.

It has been reported that in her Twitter account, Kris defender her brother by saying, "In politics, ‘Noy has won 3 straight terms sa Congress & won almost 15 million votes sa Senatorial in 2007."

She added, "How sad na he didn't think na in politics- knock out nga sya."

And she stated further, "In politics si Noy ang may napatunayan because Noy has never lost an election! Ika nga, undefeated ang record nya!"

The said statements from the so-called "tactless queen" is widely perceived as a reaction to the line delivered by boxing champ Manny Pacquiao in a political advertisement of Manny Villar as shown below.

PACMAN: Bilib po ako sa pagtulong niyo.  Kung kayo ang maging pangulo, napakarami niyo pa pong matutulungan.  Merong iba diyan, laban nang laban sa salita pero wala pa namang nagawa.  Kaya para sa isang Manny Villar na nangarap, binibigyan niyo po ng pag-asa ang mga mahihirap.

Did Pacman name a name?  No, definitely not.

But his words still hit some guilty heads despite the probability that Pacman just read a script.

Kris, in defense to her brother, argued that Noynoy won 3 straight terms as a member of the House of representatives and bagged more than 15 million votes in the 2007 Senatorial elections while Pacman had lost in his first congressional bid, implying that Noynoy is a "winner" and Pacman is a "loser" as far as politics is concerned.

The said move from Kris is a foul one.  It is a below-the-belt move.  Instead of refuting the criticisms against Noynoy stating that he has not done anything, Kris chose to make a personal attack on Pacman.  Kris' comments do not in any way answer the one million peso question: has Noynoy done anything as a politician?

Yet the more disappointing thing about Kris' comments is not its failure to answer the huge questions regarding Noynoy's political accomplishments.  The corrupt underlying notion behind Kris' comments is something that we should seriously disapprove.

Works beyond wins
My guiding principles as a writer of this blog goes beyond the advocacy of the welfare of the differently educated sector.  I write primarily to challenge the current moral standing of the Philippine society.  We Filipinos have been promoting deformed ethical frameworks for more than a century now. 

Traditional academics is just one of those deformed ethical frameworks.  The way we Filipinos deify the college diploma is so strong to the point that we are willing to let go of our moral integrity just for the sake of graduation from college.  I have written several articles about this.

But what I would like to tackle this time is the way we Filipinos perceive victory.  As far as winning is concerned, ours is rather of a questionable footing, both morally and politically.

Have you noticed how some students, upon finally graduating, raise their diplomas as if they were trophies?  For a typical Filipino, the diploma is the symbol of victory, and the lack of it is the symbol of defeat.

But what if after the said moment of victory, a college graduate ends up as a bum because he/she cannot get a job?  Unfortunately, a lot of Filipinos find it easier to respect an unemployed college graduate than an employed differently educated person.  In fact, the unemployed college graduate even gets the sympathy while the differently educated employee gets discriminated as usual. 

They would say to the unemployed college graduate, "It's okay, it's really hard to get a job nowadays."

But they would tell the differently educated employee, "When will you finish your studies?  You must work over your qualifications.  And why didn't you finish college in the first place?  Looks like you did not study well."

Here, we can see the shaky concept of victory as promoted by traditional academics.  The moment a person "wins" (graduates), it's okay if he/she does not "work" (gets employed) afterwards.  After all, he/she has already "won" for he/she has already graduated.

That is the concept of victory that we, the differently educated people, are questioning.  For us, educational victory is more than just self-serving metrics and titles.  In fact, we believe that everyone must do more than just getting a livelihood.  Instead, we promote significance in success.  We must work not just for our own gain but also for the benefit of the society as a whole.  We must not only aim to be winners, but more importantly we must also inspire others to be winners too!  That IS winning.

That being said, Kris' comments got absolutely nothing to do with winning.  Instead, what Kris did is whining!  Instead of proving the critics wrong by showing Noynoy's real "wins" in terms of legislative accomplishments, Kris chose to "silently say ouch" and brag about Noynoy's electoral "wins" instead.  And worse, Kris did that by personally attacking Pacman along the way.

Kris only referred to self-serving wins.  She does not know anything about raising winners or inspiring others to win.  How many bills has Noynoy passed into law since his first day as a solon?  How can a zero record inspire others to have the winner's mindset of delivering nothing less than an outstanding performance?

After winning thrice as a congressman and once as a senator, what work has Noynoy done that Kris can present for all the world to see or at least believe?  Is there even one?

I don't know what's with Noynoy's electoral victories that Kris is so eager to brag about.  Look at Nick Perlas' track record.  Ka Nick has done a lot of good things for the Philippines without the benefit of getting elected into public office, not even once!  On the other hand, we have here Noynoy whom Kris presents as someone who got an "undefeated record", but what has he done so far?  Nada!

And now she is presenting her brother as a "winner" with an "undefeated record"?

Oh please.

How will we remember them?

I am not in favor of Pacman's political ambition.  Not that I think he is not capable of delivering exceptional public service, but I like him better as a boxer.  Why?  Because as a boxer, he has done what other politicians have always found difficult to do: achieve a zero crime rate!  Now tell me one Philippine president who was able to achieve that.

There may be some not-so-good rumors about Pacman's private life like his alleged extra-marital relationships with some showbiz women.  But let's face it, Pacman will be remembered best not for Ara or Krista but for his championship matches that has done the (apparently) impossible: uniting us Filipinos.

As for Kris, how will we primarily remember her aside from being an artista and daughter of Ninoy and Cory?  How will the Filipino people remember her in her very own character and story?  What?  Ipe and Joey?

Her statements simply reflect her moral standards.

So if Noynoy wants to secure a sure win, he must get rid of the biggest ghost that haunts his campaign for presidency.

And in that case, it would be more advantageous to Noynoy if he would just tell Kris to leave the campaigning team and/or shut the hell up before things get a lot scarier.

First of all, my deepest apology to all my readers for the significant time of inactivity in this blog.  I know it has been more than two weeks since the last time I posted an article here in The Extracurricular Being.  As I stated in my previous post, I have been very busy working over my papers in UP Los Banos.  No worries, I will write about that again soon enough.

But for now, I would like to tackle something that I think is too hot for me to postpone.

Okay, game...

Isa po akong psychology... anu raw?

I have said it to a friend once, and now I'll say it again: showbiz and politics is an ugly mix.

But then again, welcome to the Philippines, the country where politics and showbiz have fused to form a snakes-and-ladders game of national elections: candidates play the game by being a socio-political climbers and pulling their foes down with their two front teeth.

And in a desperate attempt to keep her bet on top, a showbiz personality defender Noynoy Aquino against the allegations about the said candidate's frail state of mind.  Sure, Marian Rivera was able to convince me that Noynoy is not crazy, but in the process she looked like an idiot.

Look how Marian Rivera defended Noynoy:

MARIAN: Ah, isa po akong psychology at nakikita ko na wala naman siyang dipirensya.  Kaya sa kanya pa rin ako kahit anong sabihin nila.

Whoa!  What was that again?  Is it too hard for Marian, a graduate of BA Psychology in De La Salle University-Dasmarinas, to know the difference between the words "psychology" and "psychologist"?  If it is, how did this girl graduate?  Makes me wonder...

Marian is NOT an isolated case
And the sad fact about it is she's not an isolated case.  In terms of grammatical skills, I have witnessed how horrible today's college graduates have become, and that even includes graduates from so-called "reputable" universities. 

I remember an instance when I was a part of a training batch in one of the companies I've worked for.  Before proceeding with the English grammatical training, we had a diagnostic exam.  There's this English major from UP who actually failed the exam.  Actually, everybody failed the diagnostic exam except for one trainee.  That trainee happened to be yours truly, the "lowly undergraduate".

Another grammatical booboo that makes me shake my head until now is when I once dated an English major way back my younger years.  There was a time when we had this quarrel.  She told me, "You taking for granted me."

Huwaaaat!?

Again, these instances show that Marian is not an isolated case.  In fact, I once had a discussion with someone who used to be the head of the training department in one of the call centers here in the Philippines.  He lamented that the English proficiency of Filipinos have seen constant and alarming decline.  And contradictory to popular belief, the said decline in English proficiency is not only observable in college dropouts but also in college graduates and even post-graduate degree holders!

That's something I find quite ironic here in the Philippines.  For the academically elitist Filipino culture to deify formal college education and throw integrity out of the window, I think it's just fair for me to expect such culture to raise citizens with workable intelligence.  But no!  The only thing that matters for the academically elitist Filipino society is the college degree.  Traditional academics yell, "The hell with integrity and intelligence!"

Integrity without action is crap

I can go the distance by saying that Marian's lousy endorsement to Noynoy definitely reflects that empty political rationale for voting Noynoy.

Everytime I ask a Noynoy supporter about his/her reasons for choosing Noynoy, I do not get a sensible answer 95% of the time.  They go by naive reasons like Noynoy does not steal and does not cheat.

Does not steal and does not cheat?  They call that competence?  Please, we accumulate credentials not by omission but by commission.  In job interviews, we do not tell the interviewer what we have not done.  Not stealing and not cheating is not competence.  Why?  Because nobody should in the first place.

Okay, saying all these, I know some members of the Yellow Army would dare reason out that integrity must be placed over credentials.  Yup, there's a tinge of truth in that statement, but let's see how far that argument can go.

When we talk about integrity, it's not just a single-sided deal of not doing evil.  Integrity is about not doing evil AND doing the right thing at the same time.  Integrity must be manifested by action and not by the lack of it.

In fact, I can say that action is the more deciding component of integrity as far as the setting of Philippine national election is concerned.  The commission of right acts is the weapon while the omission of evil acts is the armor.  An impressive record of accomplishments is the candidate's "thrust" in his/her campaign, while an untarnished reputation is the candidate's "guard".

But unfortunately, no warrior wins by armor or shield alone (except perhaps for Captain America).  Yet battles can of course by won by just having a weapon or two with you.  It may be a sword, an axe, a spear, a crossbow, or even fists.  To win the battle, a warrior must show all his/her enemies that he/she can DO something.

Don't get me wrong.  I am not anti-Noynoy or what (just anti-Kris).  It's just that I really find it hard to find sensibility in the words of most Yellow Army members, ranging from the kumbayah chants of a typical Noynoy supporter to the downright stupidity of Marian.

So there.  I have expounded a lot again.  Now let's go back to Marian.

What is she gonna say if...   
A friend once told me that there are two different curricula of Psychology: the BS (Bachelor of Science) and the BA (Bachelor of Arts).  The BS curriculum is considered a pre-medicine course, while the BA curriculum is considered a pre-law course.

That means Marian's psychology degree is a pre-law course.

What if she decides to pursue law someday?  What is she gonna say next time?

I am the law?

Dumb ass.