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| ('If Nancy(Binay) would wear this robe, she would look like the Black Nazarene'.) Photo taken from the Facebook Page of Pinoy Radio Online |
According to Wikipedia.org, "Between 1998 and 2001 she performed administrative duties as personal assistant to her mother who was then the Mayor of Makati, liaising between the Mayor's office and other governmental departments and offices as well as with the private sector. From 2010 she has been functioning as personal assistant to her father, who is the current Vice President and head of the Housing department. In this role she liaises between the Office of the Vice President and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, as well as with other local government offices on matters related to housing."
Do you think, that its enough? For me its no.
Time magazine have named the Philippines to be the most stupid country to elect a 20 year OJT as a Senator. It is really bothersome to hear that we Filipinos have been generalized to be labeled as stupid by one of the respected magazines of all time. You can read the whole article here. A lot have been questioning her capability of being elected as one of the Senators, there is even one letter that circulates in Facebook from an unknown source. Here it goes:
Dearest Senator Binay,
By the time this letter is done, you would have probably become elected Senator of my beloved country. I will not say that you were elected because the majority of our electorate are illiterates who cast their ballots simply on name recognition. I will assume the best in that they see in you, someone who can do her best in the legislative body of our land.
I would like to review with you though what you said was your greatest qualification to hold public office: that you had 20 years on-the-job training with your parents. I will not question how important this may have been, but I question whether it is truly enough.
As a physician born into a family of physicians, I too had over 20 years on-the-job training before I entered medical school. I requested for a medical toy set early in my years to learn to examine inanimate objects in the house masquerading as human replicas. In my elementary years, I would sit in my mother’s clinic, writing prescriptions for her many patients. In my high school years, my grandmother became frail, requiring my parents to provide more medical care to which I was witness to. By the time I applied for medical school, I had probably seen more patients than some fourth year medical students in their lifetime.
I always had a question whether I should pursue my dream in a school where my parents were better known as it was a double-edged sword. If you did well, they would say your parents and your name helped you out. If you did poorly, they would ask how it was possible that you could be so stupid when you had brilliant parents. So believe me when I say, I can understand your predicament.
Our pathways diverge however, as I had to apply for my position. You might say that being elected is also a form of application but I had to defend myself. My interviewer for my application asked me this question, which still rings in my ears today, even after twenty-two years: “Do you think that you deserve to be admitted to this medical school just because of your family name?” I could have taken offense but I understood where this was coming from. There were numerous applicants for such limited slots, some probably definitely more deserving but my name was calling out to feel more deserved. If you removed your surname, would you still feel you have enough qualifications for the office you applied for? I rattled off my achievements, never once quoting my association with my surname. I felt I deserved it. What we truly feel however, will be left to us and our conscience.
I was accepted into medical school and I went through classroom activities, where I was held responsible by my professors. I went through clerkship and internship where I was held responsible by my residents and mentors. I went though residency where I was held responsible by my attendings and my hospital. Someone held me to my actions at every point in my desire to be a doctor. I know you have held a position as a personal assistant to your parents. Unfortunately, I do not know how much our parents will hold us responsible for our actions. To my mother, I was the most intelligent and handsome son anyone could have. My superiors and mentors made me realize that I was not. I am sure that to your parents, you are the most able and beautiful daughter anyone could have. That is how parents should treat us, but that is not the way a boss or superior would.
I have been a physician now for nineteen years. I am always held responsible by my patients. I have been held responsible, by someone else aside from my family for over twenty-two years. I have been responsible for the lives of a few thousands of our countrymen. Your OJT is actually Opening Just Today. You will be held responsible for the lives of almost a hundred million Filipinos. They will not be as kind as your parents, as I am sure you have had a taste of. You have said that this was a calling. I hope you have prepared well for it as I certainly prepared for mine.
You might say that your voice in the Senate is only one of twenty-four. If that voice remains silent in crucial moments, it may spell the difference for our country. If that voice cannot defend the legislation it aims to pass, you might as well leave the lawmaking to someone else. If that voice will only serve as the speaker from which emanates the voice of another, then the voice at the microphone should have been the one to get the electorate’s votes.
I did not vote for you as I believed and I believe you do not deserve my vote. But the beauty of democracy is that I should learn to abide by the voice of the majority, no matter how uninformed I feel it may be. My choices have not always won elections. If they do, I pray that their path follows the way my conscience and my mind convinced me to vote for them. When people like you win, I only have one prayer: to be proven wrong.
Mine is a voice that you may never hear but I have never stifled it with the fear of creating waves in the calm waters. The ripples I make will hopefully make you gather your oars and work your way back to shore. You are not perfect and neither am I. I sincerely hope though that you work towards it and I will happily see how much more imperfect I am.
A citizen of the republic.
Patrick Moral, MD
I hate to be called stupid an idiot or anything that is similar to that word. We Filipinos are not stupid. We just make the wrong choice. We sometimes tend to be fooled by what we see, what we hear and of course, when money talks. Most of us would not think twice and check the backgrounds of the candidates who wanted to be elected. Most of us vote for that person due to their family name. There's a saying that goes, that "Kung ano ang puno ay siya rin ang bunga."(Whatever the tree is, that would be the fruit too.) But please remember too that in every tree, the fruit that it bears is sometimes rotten or sometimes its not yet mature then it falls of to the tree.
I am not saying that Nancy Binay is rotten. Perhaps she's not yet mature enough. I hope that she is a fruit that even not mature enough, she will never fall off of the tree, and that she will grow and prove her worth. That all of those who mocked her and looked down on her capacity would be wrong. That the Filipinos who entrusted their votes to her are right by choosing her to let her be in the Senate.
Everybody deserves a chance. We will be watching you, Senator Nancy Binay.
