On Grace Poe's citizenship: The More Important Question Is...

This recent attack against Grace Poe is legitimate yet downright crass. I don't know who advised UNA interim president Toby Tiangco to just put out that question about Poe's citizenship. That is a technicality that is expected not to impact on the voter's perception on Poe. Besides, this will even create a more emotional bond between Poe and the masses. Tiangco's tirade is outright foolish and definitely something shot out of the hip.

The question about Poe's citizenship is a TECHNICAL question. Are we judging someone's citizenship or the more pertinent question is the sincerity of her actions as a Filipino? One maybe a Filipino-American yet acts like a Caucasian.

And who is a Filipino anyway? In our Constitution, those born here are considered Filipino. Yet there's a catch---those born here of Filipino parents. Surely, Grace Poe is not at all an alien since she looks like an ordinary Filipino.

The more important issue is really about Grace Poe's PURITY OF HEART. What prompted her to run when she herself said last year that she's not interested. What prodded her to stake her name now when she detested this before?

Why are you running when you know for a fact that you are not prepared. Why risk it? Is it because of glamour? Is it because of riches? What?

Have we asked ourselves what's so special about Grace Poe that we need to risk electing a more experienced man to the Highest Post of the Land and risk the very future of this country for the next six years?

Are we that desperate that we so choose such person like Grace Poe who we know deep in our hearts that she's not the best choice--only she reaps praise right now because we are so angry and actually being prodded to anger because of the propaganda levied against another candidate?

It is time for us to wake up. It is time to erase these mythical perceptions about the presidency, that it is destiny, that it is this and that.

We need to come to terms that the Office of the President is the most powerful office in this land and it actually lays the blueprint of where we go from here six years forward.

We don't need a nun or a good natured person as President, oh no. We don't need a brute to lead us.

What is so unfortunate for us in these times is that we are being forced to choose between extremes: A Grace Poe perceived publicly as "kind" and a Rudy Duterte perceived as "strong willed brute." These two are hugging the headlines and rightly so. Their reputations precede them.

The sad fact is that those who truly deserve to be our president are those in the middle and do not enjoy the showbiz-like stature of these two persons.

Ranged against these people, Poe looks very tame and very unqualified while Duterte is fine except of course he shoots himself in the mouth most of the times.

We are forced to choose those popular when election to the Office of the President is simply not a popularity contest. It is becoming so, because of the demands of politics. Financiers need assurance that they can re-coup their political investments. Since politics here is simply unpredictable, these moneyed men rely on surveys which are tools to measure awareness and popularity, not competency. That explains why we always elect populist leaders whose loyalties rest not on the masses but to those too crafty enough to part their monies with the hopes of getting a slice of this country when their bets win.

This explains why we have such people as Grace Poe or Rudy Duterte who land in prominent places in surveys because they are popular but not exactly competent.