Legacy is not spelled A-R-R-O-Y-O

ZOOMING IN

Rudy Romero

02/27/2009

As one gets older, one begins to entertain thoughts of mortality, and any person who contemplates eventual departure for the great beyond thinks increasingly of how he or she wants to be remembered by those with whom he or she has had dealings in this world. In other words, he or she thinks more and more of legacy-building.

A sensible person thinks of leaving behind a good legacy. A person desirous of leaving a good legacy, of being remembered kindly by the community, begins, as he gets older, to re-order his life so as to leave behind only things and deeds that merit approval and commendation. His decision-making increasingly becomes oriented toward correcting mistakes and making reparation for wrongdoing.

That’s what a sensible person thinks and does. An unsensible person, on the other hand, is not concerned with his or her legacy. He or she thinks and acts with absolutely no concern for how society will remember him or her when the transition to the next life occurs. There is no effort to correct past transgression and no resolution to act with greater decency and justice in the future.

As I contemplate the record and conduct of Gloria Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel (Mike), the word that immediately comes to my mind is legacy. Do this couple even think of their legacy to the nation? Do they ever think of how the Filipino people will regard them when they leave the national scene, as they will sooner or later? How do they want to be remembered?

As I see it, Gloria and Mike Arroyo have from their first day in Malacañang — during GMA’s first stay in the Palace, in the 1960s, they were not yet married — cared not a hoot about their legacy and have remained uncaring, ever since, about how the nation will remember their Malacañang days. They have conducted their affairs as though there were no tomorrow. Virtually from day one it has been a case of one scandal following another. The lead scandal was the Jose Pidal affair, which Gloria and Mike Arroyo handled with so much grossness and so little finesse. Has there been an attempt since then to explain to the Filipino people what the Jose Pidal accounts were all about? None whatsoever. “The hell with what the people think” is the mindset that the Arroyo couple have maintained with regard to that episode.

Since that initial thumbing of the nose at legacy, Gloria and Mike Arroyo have gone on to do things, and to conduct themselves, in an manner indicative of a we-couldn’t-care-less attitude toward how future Filipinos will view their stay in Malacañang. They have offended the Filipino people’s sensibilities, through a succession of omissions and commissions, that the Filipino people have come to the conclusion that tomorrow is something with which the couple who occupy the seat of power are not preoccupied.

The legacy of Gloria Arroyo and her consort is dismal. The word misgovernance — corruption, electoral cheating, toleration of extra-judicial killings, misuse of public resources and abuse of authority — sums it all up. Gloria and Mike Arroyo will be very badly remembered by their countrymen.

Is there time for the Arroyo couple to reverse the situation and improve their legacy? It is possible but highly improbable. Gloria Arroyo and her husband are set in their ways, and there is very little time left. Any change of direction will have to be drastic. A legacy is something that is not established overnight.

In sum, legacy is not spelled A-R-R-O-YO.

(My e-mail address is rudy_v_romero@yahoo.com)

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