A New Beginning

from here

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE PRE-MARTIAL LAW era, the inauguration of a new chief executive will involve the participation of the three branches of government. Witnessing the inaugural of President Benigno S. Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar C. Binay will be Congress, officially represented by the Senate President who will read Congress’ proclamation of the mandate bestowed by the people last May 10. Administering the oath of office will be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in the presence of the high court itself. Represented, too, are officials from the national and local governments, the diplomatic corps with 16 official delegations from overseas; the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, and we, the people.

While austere, there will be pomp and pageantry Wednesday, something rare for a nation whose institutional memories are undeveloped. The President-elect will fetch the incumbent from the Palace, and from there, they will go to the Quirino Grandstand, where the incumbent will receive official courtesies for the last time and then depart from the scene.

The ceremonial Wednesday harks back to the pre-martial law era, when predictable, because regular, transfers of power took place. The heavy weight of tradition and past precedent have helped bind the incumbent as she flailed about trying to impose a role for herself in the closing hours of her presidency, something that neither decency nor tradition accords a departing chief executive.

Today, in a sense, serves as the closing chapter to the generation-long effort to purge the country of the bad habits acquired during martial. Not least because in recent years under President Macapagal-Arroyo, the country came perilously close to reliving the “constitutional authoritarianism” of the New Society.

But today also marks a new beginning. Even as officialdom plays its role, it is the people, the mandate they conferred, and the manner in which they conferred that mandate that must be foremost in everyone’s thoughts. It was not so long ago that the country remained unsure if a peaceful, constitutional and democratic transfer of power would take place. Public pressure was relentless for elections to proceed, and uncompromising public expectations resulted in our institutions functioning almost in spite of themselves.

The largest plurality of voters since the 1960s—and the largest under our present Constitution—chose the man who takes his oath as President of the Philippines today, and this was ratified by the majority by means of their accepting the results, whether in terms of public opinion or the actions of their representatives in Congress. The people voted for, and accepted, a candidate who embarks on his presidency because he represents the opposite of the incumbent, whose controversial and corrosive legacy we dissected at length over the past three days.

Where they saw cleverness combined with cynicism, dogged determination in pursuit of the power game, false piety combined with brazen impunity, glibness masquerading profligacy and mendacity, the Filipino people now expect and demand ethical governance combined with transparency, servant-leadership combined with accountability, plain speaking together with official simplicity and continuing candor. And a government that combines a personal sense of propriety with a scrupulous regard for both the spirit and letter of the law.

The new President inaugurated today, Benigno Aquino III, faces expectations so high—because uniquely his own to meet, bearing as he does the weight of the example of his parents—that he might be tempted to immediately start trying to downplay these expectations. He cannot do this. No one believes he can fix everything, but he is uniquely situated, by history and the mandate he has been given, to approach his responsibilities with a fixed moral compass in contrast to the manner in which ethics was viewed as an inconvenience by his predecessor.

A new chapter begins. This has been the second referendum on the methods of misgovernance in a generation. As in 1986 so must it be in 2010: the presidency is not about power, it is about service; it is not about imposing one’s will, it is about enabling the creative and positive growth of our democratic project.