Exhibits

IN HIS 1981 state visit to the United States, Ferdinand the Great blazed a trail of sorts in presidential oratory by spicing up his speeches with human exhibits.
Distinctively do I remember that Marcos talk, though I am confused now as to its milieu – whether it was the Capitol or at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. – where the Great Dictator made a reasoned argument on the demise of the communist insurgency by presenting as evidence on-exhibit Ka Luis Taruc and Nilo Tayag, respectively representing the Old Guards and the New Order of the Red movement, marching under his New Society banner. Of course, the insurgents back home quickly branded the two as some sort of “capitalist roaders” and sell-outs, Tayag even appended with the sobriquet Payag.
For the sainted Cory Aquino, it was her martyred husband Ninoy that was made permanent exhibit in her presidential talks.
The General Fidel Valdez Ramos took his cue from the 1992 presidential debates and grabbed Mang Pandoy as one centerpiece of his administration.
For those who have forgotten and those too young to remember, Mang Pandoy it was that lived in a shanty at the Manila Bay reclamation area, and, in desperation, said he would have himself shot by any thrill seeker for P100,000 just to provide some future for his kids. Each of the presidential candidate was asked what program of government he/she would craft for Mang Pandoy who was made the representation of the Filipino Everyman.
Ramos exhibited his find at his very inaugural; government agencies were promptly mobilized to help raise the state of Mang Pandoy’s being through his transfer to an old Bliss housing site, the provision of livelihood programs and even a television talk show of his own over the government station Channel 4.
With Ramos out of the presidency, the last thing heard of Mang Pandoy was his having returned to his old miserable haunts. All the developmental inputs going to naught. Wonder if the man is still alive.
Rather than the human kind, it was his mangling the King’s language that the Actor Joseph Estrada extensively exhibited in his presidency. Not to mention his spirituous delinquency.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo mastered the art of the human exhibit in her state of the nation addresses.
Three or four years back, there were the three boys from Payatas with their bangkang papel set on the Pasig River to reach Malacanang Palace. So what happened to them? The state of poverty they represented having worsened since then.
In 2006, it was Major General Jovito Palparan to impact to the nation her determined hammer-and-thongs approach to the insurgency. Cry Butcher, and let loose the dogs of war! The militants could only cringe in terror, if not in rage.
Last year, the human exhibits ran the gamut of governors and mayors, Cabinet men and entrepreneurs, to members of the perfumed set. A social call, a soiree was how last year’s SONA came to be labeled.
Last Monday, it was the turn of everyday heroes to be exhibited by the President.
Exhibit A was Rodney Berdin, 13, of Barangay Rombang, Belison town in Antique who saved his mother, brother, and sister from drowning in the raging waters of the Sibalom River at the height of Typhoon Frank.
Exhibit B was Victoria Mindoro who used to earn P5,000 a month as farmer and factory worker but now gets as much as P10,000 a week as a beneficiary of an agrarian reform community in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Exhibit C was Alan Almanse, 40, college graduate and father of two, who in his past twin jobs as fisherman and tricycle driver only earned P100 a day but now gets a daily income of P1,000 a day as whaleshark officer under the tourism program of the government.
Good exhibits all. Here’s hoping against hope they won’t go the way of Mang Pandoy.