On Edu Manzano's statement (Election Bitterness Post Number 2)

In this(click!) article, Edu Manzano, recently declared running mate of the administration's bet on the upcoming presidential elections, made this statement:

"In questioning my qualifications for the vice presidency simply because of one of my professions, my detractors virtually made a wholesale condemnation of those in the entertainment industry as being unfit and incapable of providing competent leadership to our people."

First of all, the entertainment industry, I believe, has yet to produce leaders that made significant changes in our government. (You can correct me on this one.) Yes they are capable of getting the presidency (with the election of Estrada but we all know where that went to), but it doesn't mean that they are already capable.

Yes they can be. Marami naman atang taga-showbiz na may utak. But it does not mean all of them - or even majority of them. And he has to face the fact that being an actor - and to not have any thing else that may augment that profession, like a bachelor degree or whatever (in which case, you can again correct me if Edu has in fact a bachelor degree) - does not give anyone confidence of a capability to lead. Handling a government position SHOULD BE beyond projecting in front of the camera and putting a prefix before your name. It's not an acting job. Look at Sen. Lito Lapid now, for crying out loud.

The point of this whole post is that leadership entails KNOWLEDGE. It is even better if Edu just said that he once was able to handle government positions already so he has experience and a bit of knowledge (if compared to Sen. Lito Lapid and many others). You have to know what you're doing and how you're going to do something.For crying out loud, case in point, if you're going to be a senator, you should at least have to know how to read in english since the constitution is written in that forsaken language (kung san mapapagisip ka bakit ba kasi naka-Ingles ang Konstitusyon). And you actually at least have to know law so that you can make them!

One time, my sister told me that the NDCC during the typhoon Ondoy should have had an operations specialist heading it so that it would have had a chance to help people. Clearly, Gilbert Teodoro, coincidentally Edu Manzano's running mate, was not one. Just like the DOH should be headed by a doctor and just like how departments in the government could be more effective if people specializing in the particular field would head them, government positions should also be run not just by aspirant leaders but those who really have knowledge on how to run things. Actors and talk show hosts are not necessarily leaders and face it, they have nothing in their profession to offer you. At least lawyers know law if ever they'd run for a position.

This is not to downplay capabilities. It's to make things straight. The reason actors get elected is because they're popular, not because people deem they're capable. Don't twist that. Especially in this case, there are only very few exemptions (actors that are actually good leaders), if none at all. So don't go around telling people not to expect the entertainment industry as unfit for leadership because it has a reason. Have you seen developed countries elect actors from the said industry as much as we do in the Philippines? And where are we now?

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I swear. Ang boboto kay Erap ay lower life form!