lui is in heaven

I did not do anything but watch TV all day today. And I am sure most of the people in my country were glued as well. After all, we just installed our new President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, or Noynoy for short. Or shorter still, make that P.Noy. This also means saying goodbye to PGMA. That is short for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In the fast paced IT world, we shorten names and memories. We just witnessed two presidents come and go. Two leaders born from a family of politicians. PGMA is the daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. And PNoy is the only son of the late Senator Benigno Aquino and President Cory Aquino. Two people bound by fate and destiny. PGMA chose to take the path of leadership early by leaving the academe and taking public service through social welfare and the vice presidency. PNoy left a comfortable private life to heed the call of public service. PGMA taught economics and PNoy studied under her. PGMA ran the Philippines for 9 years with the kind of economic expertise hounded by scandals and poor work ethics. PNoy will only start his own leadership style tomorrow. Meanwhile, my country stagger with economic mismanagement that brought poverty, unemployment, underemployment, diaspora and migration that separated families and broke communities.

There is something that can be said about power brokers. They either use power to break or they broker power the same way criminals broker their souls. I can not judge PNoy yet but PGMA has shown how power can indeed break, not just PGMA's soul, but also of communities. PNoy has a lot of mending to do . . .