Maturity becomes Mikey
NOT I alone instantly dismissed him as no different from Disney’s most famous rodent when he first burst into the Pampanga political scene in 2001.
Mousy. His most vicious media critics – myself not excluded – ridiculed him during the campaign. His name, a prime stock in-trade in Philippine politics, many times we punned to utter disrespect.
Even his US-education I did not spare: No, he did not get it from the University of California-Berkeley, as his curriculum vitae said, but from the then-resident bad boy of the NBA, Charles Barkley. I had all the local corns popping with that snide then.
His landslide victory as vice governor readily credited to his grandfather, mother, the actor-governor, to just about everyone but him. Also, media played all too well the withdrawal – from the race, rather than the bank – of his opponent midway into the campaign.
If he hurt from all that criticism that followed him to the sangguniang panlalawigan, he did not show. He was always cordial to us, and genial in interviews, his respectful “Kuya” or reverential “Tito” ever appended to our monikers.
His being a fun person – deemed as happy-go-lucky brattyness – denied him the seriousness he deserved as vice governor.
His reactive outburst “Langaw ka lang” directed at the then emerging quarry kingpin, the now departed Benjie Galang – righteous as it was – took a different track in the public mind, as the temper tantrum of a brat. The sincerity and humility in his subsequent public apology lost in their prejudiced image of him.
A shock the media got when, after his first election as congressman, he thanked them for their criticisms that he said helped tremendously in accelerating his political maturity.
And his constituents in the second district have never felt more contented. What with all the projects and services he has been pouring on them.
“Simply being Mykey is enough for a runaway election victory, not only in the second district but in the whole of Pampanga,” said a mayor who asked that he be not identified for fear of misconstrued as seeking some favors from the presidential son.
That he has changed – tremendously, and for the better, of course – was most evident in a recent tete-a-tete with the Society of Pampanga Columnists.
Where before he fielded questions with knee-jerk reactions or coming-from-thin-air responses, he now speaks with the certitude of wisdom and the magnitude of study. A sampler:
On the stalemate at the Pampanga capitol: “Beyond the basic check and balance, mutual respect defines the relationship between the governor and the sangguniang panlalawigan. Open communications, both formal and informal, are essential here too. And of course, compromise – it being in the very nature of politics.”
On the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway interchange: “The determining factor on the interchange covers the standards of: 1) most advantageous to the government; 2) engineering soundness; 3) absolutely no compromise on the safety, comfort and convenience of the travelers. This makes purely incidental the other factors as whoever owns the land where it will be situated and the advocates of the proposed sites.”
On the national broadband controversy: “Only one side has been hogging the limelight, doing all the talking. We have to wait for and listen to the other sides of the issue. At its core is still: has there been any money plowed into the so-called deal?
“I am not the President’s spokesperson so I can’t speak of her position on all these. But let me tell you, my father is far, far from the image he is being made out in this issue.”
Why, even the significance of the day was not lost to him.
“It is not purely incidental that I chose to met you on this day – the eve of the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Martial Law. I want to make an expression before you members of the media of my continuing commitment to the freedom of the press. Your criticism of my actions, even of my person, no matter how painful I have always taken as positively constructive. They have contributed greatly to my maturity.”
Truly, maturity becomes Congressman Juan Miguel Macapagal Arroyo. And sagacity defines him.
Mousy. His most vicious media critics – myself not excluded – ridiculed him during the campaign. His name, a prime stock in-trade in Philippine politics, many times we punned to utter disrespect.
Even his US-education I did not spare: No, he did not get it from the University of California-Berkeley, as his curriculum vitae said, but from the then-resident bad boy of the NBA, Charles Barkley. I had all the local corns popping with that snide then.
His landslide victory as vice governor readily credited to his grandfather, mother, the actor-governor, to just about everyone but him. Also, media played all too well the withdrawal – from the race, rather than the bank – of his opponent midway into the campaign.
If he hurt from all that criticism that followed him to the sangguniang panlalawigan, he did not show. He was always cordial to us, and genial in interviews, his respectful “Kuya” or reverential “Tito” ever appended to our monikers.
His being a fun person – deemed as happy-go-lucky brattyness – denied him the seriousness he deserved as vice governor.
His reactive outburst “Langaw ka lang” directed at the then emerging quarry kingpin, the now departed Benjie Galang – righteous as it was – took a different track in the public mind, as the temper tantrum of a brat. The sincerity and humility in his subsequent public apology lost in their prejudiced image of him.
A shock the media got when, after his first election as congressman, he thanked them for their criticisms that he said helped tremendously in accelerating his political maturity.
And his constituents in the second district have never felt more contented. What with all the projects and services he has been pouring on them.
“Simply being Mykey is enough for a runaway election victory, not only in the second district but in the whole of Pampanga,” said a mayor who asked that he be not identified for fear of misconstrued as seeking some favors from the presidential son.
That he has changed – tremendously, and for the better, of course – was most evident in a recent tete-a-tete with the Society of Pampanga Columnists.
Where before he fielded questions with knee-jerk reactions or coming-from-thin-air responses, he now speaks with the certitude of wisdom and the magnitude of study. A sampler:
On the stalemate at the Pampanga capitol: “Beyond the basic check and balance, mutual respect defines the relationship between the governor and the sangguniang panlalawigan. Open communications, both formal and informal, are essential here too. And of course, compromise – it being in the very nature of politics.”
On the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway interchange: “The determining factor on the interchange covers the standards of: 1) most advantageous to the government; 2) engineering soundness; 3) absolutely no compromise on the safety, comfort and convenience of the travelers. This makes purely incidental the other factors as whoever owns the land where it will be situated and the advocates of the proposed sites.”
On the national broadband controversy: “Only one side has been hogging the limelight, doing all the talking. We have to wait for and listen to the other sides of the issue. At its core is still: has there been any money plowed into the so-called deal?
“I am not the President’s spokesperson so I can’t speak of her position on all these. But let me tell you, my father is far, far from the image he is being made out in this issue.”
Why, even the significance of the day was not lost to him.
“It is not purely incidental that I chose to met you on this day – the eve of the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Martial Law. I want to make an expression before you members of the media of my continuing commitment to the freedom of the press. Your criticism of my actions, even of my person, no matter how painful I have always taken as positively constructive. They have contributed greatly to my maturity.”
Truly, maturity becomes Congressman Juan Miguel Macapagal Arroyo. And sagacity defines him.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 10:34 AM
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