I kept silence during the inauguration of Pres. Noynoy Aquino,watching and praying that indeed we have not made a mistake in choosing this unlikely candidate. I have prophesied before in my article, “The birth of a New Philippines” that appeared in May and quickly taken on by the broadcast media and aired that we are living in a new chapter of history.

Indeed, one can hardly recognize when history had come and favoured the most unlikely person to be the president because we were so used to those so-called “eloquent and wise”. Noynoy is not a man that you can be proud of in terms of scholastic brilliance or in terms of deciding quickly who will run the government with him. He is not even a UP graduate or had a post-graduate degree. But we know one thing that others didn´t have either as a legacy imparted in their genes or in their spirits, the man has the iron will of his mother and the humility and integrity necessary to lead a clean government.

He came as a savior of the Philippine republic at an hour when the sanctity of the constitution is being questioned to fit the wiles of the corrupt and the power hungry mobs in the congress. Armed with only the hope of putting up a righteous government the Filipinos can be proud of, he run with doubts and dissimulation if he can make it. Without money, without much influential connections but only a dogged ambition to model and bring about a clean government, he gave in to the importunate pleas of the people. He was a man’s man and the people’s long awaited savior. But even this gentleman can be hindered in reaching his full potential if his eyes will be focused on the problem alone instead of looking above for every help he needs. Persistence, my dear, bears fruit, but even efforts fail to curb the inherent corruption among men and in the bearucracy, simply because this is first an spiritual problem that needs to be dealt with spiritually and then practically. Approach it both and you win.

An unlikely savior

Noynoy, regardless of some hypes or what thoughts you have heard is not a brilliant student or scholastic in leaning unlike Ferdinand Marcos or Gloria Arroyo. The former two presidents are both well educated and knew well the basis of their power, the constitution and the mob.

They can play religious at a religious banquet, friendly at a friend`s party and stern when the situation requires. They embody the political spirit that acts like a chameleon to every situation they are thrown in. True leaders however have the uncanny knock of simply standing for what is right and doing right till they finish their course well. Noynoy is more of this type, and that does not require one to be scholastically brilliant. He however possess a firm heart, that holds to the end to deliver what he promised, righteous governance just like her mother did.

Sometimes, God does save His people by sending servants who are willing to do His bidding, even those whom we might think as unlettered and unlikely people. He did not change; he still does the same by looking at their hearts and not their minds. Governance is simple; people complicate the matter by doing other jobs not called by their office eg unscrupulous deals and hidden agenda. If we only do our job and do it well, we will surpass even the achievements we had in the past. Paul wrote that God did not call many noble and intelligent people into His fold so that none may glory in his flesh but that all things would be of God. “For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise: and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong. And the base things of the world and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen: and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his sight” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29 DRB). As the verses above tell, our weaknesses can become our main qualifications for the job we were called to put up with. It is not even by the gifts and abilities that God call men into their places.Rather, it is their weakness, their helplessness. The Philipines have been weakened for a reason, humiliated and trampled among its neighbors. But there is a destiny so great for this nation that the time table of heaven cannot be delayed anymore to release God’s dreaded champions in this country and take the nations in His name.

The Philipines will become industrialized, that is not a statement to doubt, but ours will not be an empty industrialization, we will send missionaries and emissaries abroad not just to clean and engineer buildings or help families but to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom in the midst of many heathen nations. Let us pray that Nonoy’s administration will kickstart this vision in our nation. It is therefore wisdom for Noynoy to employ the help of others to run the government well. God gives grace to accomplish our callings but we need to ask Him. It is not easy to be the captain of this nation, but we have to help each other to attain our corporate destiny.

It is time to call to God as a nation to place the righteous into a position fit for him. As I was informed, there are about 50,000 rank and file coterminous with the former president, completely changing those people seems irrelevant and expensive, and it seems to require indeed a radical surgery if it happens. An alternative would be to reduce the number of duplicate offices that is not really needed and to change those people in leadership who did not produce any productive output as measured by the mandated goals of the office.

The power of integrity

Integrity is a strong belief in your word that it is true and you can deliver the goods you´ve promised. It is actually standing for what is right and what is true no matter what others may think about us. The apostle Peter stood condemned by a maid on the night that Jesus was about to be crucified because he denied the truth. “I saw you have been with the Man,” the maid asked as he was warming himself with the bystanders waiting for the words of the High Priest about what to do with Jesus. Three times, he was asked, but he denied he knew Him. Denial of truth or the lack of admission of our faults is just a tell tale sign that we are actually living in a crisis of integrity. Many do, especially those who have cheapened the value of their words by making promises that has no fulfilment.

No one has the authority to lead any organization or corporation who quickly is taken down by either the sickness of immorality or filthy lucre by whatever necessity of reason that he might think. As Solomon once wrote, “For the bewitching of vanity obscureth (every) good things, and the wandering of concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind” (Wisdom of Solomon 4:12 DRB). Vanity spoken in this verse does not only refer to excessive show of one´s mane, it is a show, brutal as it may seem, of pomp and grandure at the expense of others. This can truly obscure or overthrow right reason and an otherwise expense of wisdom. This overturns what is truth because indulgence of the flesh results to death. This is the main reason King David has to battle all his life, even those near of kin to him because he, being at the highest level of authority presumptuously used his office to commit crime by taking another man´s wife and murdering that woman´s husband.

Death is the result of concupiscence, and every lack thereof of self-control produces death or malice. When Lee Kwan Yew visited the Philippines during the reign of Marcos, he did not only wonder about the pomp and glory he saw, but astonished at what rate Marcos actually is dissipating our money. Corruption in the heart of man has overturned an otherwise progressive nation to the status of a beggar. It took more than four presidents, Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Erap Estrada, Gloria Arroyo and now the fifth one, to make amends to our past mistake.

It was a costly rebuilding effort that we have gone through, and always, it is easier to destroy a good work, than to start or continue a good one. We have to become vanguards to our freedom, whether this is primarily of economic interest or spiritual in reason, no one has been created to deprive another being of his freedom so long as this is under the law. Whenever people refuse to give up power, they become corrupted by it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and that is the main reason why we have a constitution to follow so that men will live according to the rule of law and the freedom that it espouses.

The rule of law

The rule of law builds and provides the necessary track for freedom to reign in a just society. The lack of law precipitates all kinds of evil from slavery to dictatorship and to mob rule or chaos. This law was based on the sanctity of life and the freedom that is inherent to it way back to the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law given by the Lord to the Israelites. Whenever men have tried to discard the constitution and made it obsolete by framing another one under the guise of service, they paid the dearest price. To trample the constitution and change it to fit the wiles of the few power hungry mobs, we are endangered of going to the days of a dictator or to an oligarch.

We have to standby and defend our constitution as we deem it righteous and fit because this was framed for the purpose of restoring true freedom and democracy in the country. As the new president will soon get enough nod in the congress and the senate, he must learn not to be conformist or a manpleaser in both houses but express his praise enough for the job done right to those deserving.

But he must resist the inclination to change the present constitution only to make amends to special interest groups. Every righteous constitution was based on the sanctity of man´s life and the freedom that he has. Everything that we actually need to do and can accomplish to do is based on it. It has worked before and it will also work in the future because it was not crafted to suit only a particular interest group or class of society but was done to ensure every man their liberty and happiness in a just and humane society.

We don´t really need to change the constitution as much as to apply it in our lives and to our communities. Noynoy Aquino must be firm on this. It also behoves the president to only pick those co-workers who will work according to this platform of righteous governance.

Change begins with us

There are so many things that need changing, but we have to do these one at a time. It will completely dazzle us off our feet if everything goes overnight. However, there are some things Noynoy can´t do for you, and that is obeying the law for us. Each one of us needs to follow the rules imposed by the law; because there is no law that has been crafted for evil or malicious intent. Only the lack of law or the compromise of law does dictators arise or listless mobs rule. Because the Germans were depressed at the result of World War I and the imposed conditions by the Allies were severe, the hardship of life that followed quickly dissipated all hopes to recover again. But Hitler´s eloquence and brilliant reasoning that he could turn around Germany in just 4 years made them blind to other alternatives.

Their hopes may have been dashed to pieces but the shallow hope instilled by Hitler awakened in them the vision for a new and strong Germany. But at what price? The eventual surrender of everyone´s freedom; he dissolved the parliament, bypassed the constitution so that he was made the absolute ruler of Germany. Whenever the checks and balances in the government are removed, this leads to eventual rise of dictators or mob rule.

We are indeed in a new dimension, seeing a president who does not lack the courage to moor the country into a more stable and just foundation even at a great price. He was willing to pay the extra-mile during his campaign and fight for what is right, he did not even go the other way to smear of his enemy. We are seeing a just man, clad in simple uniforms, used to a well to do life, approachable and with a penchant for the simple life, Noynoy, has the potential to bring the country into its greatest economic progress yet since Word War II.

Let us not forget to pray daily that God may give grace for our nation to right its wrong turns and make provisions for it to achieve its potential in Noynoy´s term. Pray, this is the time Lord, for an economic miracle for the birth of a new Philippines.