The Philippine Online Chronicles

This is a story about a boy and a girl. This is a love story. This is political analysis. This is a tale of Zeitgeist. As every love story goes, it always starts off with a woman.

Everyone in the Philippines knows her story. Maria Clara is the Philippines. Maria Clara is the avatar of the Filipina, the epitome of elegance and grace. She is conservative, but hides her playful streak. Her perfect beauty is as radiant as her intelligence and her strength of character. To delve into her soul, is to find what makes her smile blaze like a warm smoothing sunshine and to bear witness to the depth of her sadness, her loneliness and the pain she goes through everyday. In her joys and in her sorrows, in her beauty and in her character, to describe her in a word, however imperfect that word, it would have to be “amazing.”

Like Wonder Woman, everyone is in love with Maria Clara.

The long string of boyfriends that have come and gone that have done Maria Clara wrong is a litany as long as the book of the dead. They don’t ride to her defense when she needs them the most. Of course, vultures circle and she is rarely without her suitors.

Why don’t we meet one of her suitors?

A few days ago, Noemi Lardizabal-Dado wrote “Nick Perlas on New Politics.” A month ago, Manuel Buencamino asked, “Where are the platforms?” Perlas thinks Senator Aquino’s campaign is a false gospel. It is a compelling piece and the logic of Mr. Perlas cannot be denied. And if you look at the long list of Mr. Perlas’ platform, and what he wants change is insight to what this person’s mind holds.

Nick Perlas the Philippine Presidential aspirant has been called many things. Recently, the Philippines’ Commission on Election has chosen to brand Mr. Perlas as a nuisance candidate. So protest launched urging COMELEC to Reinstate Nicanor Perlas.

Months before, in my mind, I had long ago dismissed Mr. Perlas’ candidacy as lunacy in the face of how our political drama is playing out like chess pieces, like a game of Warcraft. Make no mistake this is war and each suitor is firing live ammo.

Think about Nick Perlas as the quintessential geek, neither flashy nor fancy.

The geek is plain. He is ordinary. He isn’t in it for the money or the honor or whatnut. He wants to solve problems that he is presented with. He is geek and like all geeks, a woman throws him into a recursive loop.

The geek is like that reliable knight who does Maria Clara’s will, and the perfect confidant. The geek is the guy who shields her as best he could and picks her up when she falls. He stands by her when no one does. But seduction is not in the geek’s repertoire.

And Nick Perlas the candidate is as exciting as the wrapping of bond paper.

Noynoy Aquino is the Trojan horse, the least expected and unlikely suitor/hero of the story who comes riding to save the day. He isn’t evil. He comes from a good background. He is not a genius and knows he cannot surpass his own parents’ success. In fact, of the list seeking her sweet approval he is the one best-shot Maria Clara has at happiness.

(And yes, how ironic since Mr. Aquino is a bachelor).

Is it fair to approach the problem of Maria Clara as a Mentat would? Does it matter if the geek could see beyond her physical beauty, the depth of Maria Clara’s loneliness and her potential? Does it matter if he uses his power that the universe sees the awesomeness of this woman?

Is Perlas deluding himself that he knows what the Philippines’ problem is? Does he understand that the complex problem of the Philippines is like a Gordian knot, and to solve it, requires a slow and methodical approach?

Do any of us see it that way?

Is our politics such as it is that we can distill it as a love story?

What if, after all the darkness that Maria Clara has gone through, she needs to be put back together. She needs to be made whole. What if the Hero’s job isn’t that he’s perfect, but his job is to put back the pieces of her shattered heart together, so she could love again?

What if, for all the imperfections of an Aquino candidacy, for all the imperfections of an Aquino Administration would bring that that it would be first step in healing our nation’s broken institutions? What if his presidency isn’t about making the country great, but to bind our nation’s wounds so that the next president can have the peace to advance our collective interest? What if, an Aquino candidacy isn’t about New Politics, but setting the stage for that New Politics?

Noemi Dado asked at the end of her piece on Perlas, “are you ready for new politics? Do you want to give new politics a chance?

This is my answer.

This is Zeitgeist. What if in the end, the Geek does get a chance to write Maria Clara’s missing manual. What if, after all the kindness and the sweetness and after all the goodness, after giving Maria Clara the means to fly, after all the understanding, after writing down her missing manual, and she doesn’t appreciate it that way? What if that doesn’t rock her world? What if like a hopeless romantic, Maria Clara is attracted to the fancy and the shallow? What if the geek’s story is the classic, unrequited love? If that’s love, does it come at too high cost?

Where then does New Politics fit in?

Maybe that’s what People call destiny.

Maybe the only answer comes from that piece from Wicked, to try Defying Gravity.

Photos by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some Rights Reserved.

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