In an unsurprising attempt to discredit presidential front-runner Senator Noynoy Aquino, multi-billionaire and fellow Senator Manny Villar has released a press release saying “that there is no room for an on-the-job training” should Sen. Aquino win the popular vote.

The release proceeds to outline a doomsday scenario that will strike the Philippines on July 1, 2010, the first day that the 15^thpresident takes office.

“The country is already facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The budget deficit is increasing and the number of Filipinos going hungry is now in a historic high. The next president should be president from day one…”

“…And things are not about to get rosy this year. The next president would be managing the affairs of the country under enormous pressure. This is really not the time for learning, this is a time for action,” he [Villar] said.

Senator Aquino will be pleased to know that—despite the blatant attempts by the billionaire candidate to cut his 44% (in the most recent SWS election survey)—Mr Villar is resorting to unfounded scenarios and losing tactics, ones used by US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) against then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections.

“There are a lot of national security challenges and I know how to handle them. Senator Obama wants to bomb Pakistan without talking to the Pakistanis. I think that’s dangerous,” McCain said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think that’s an important factor – experience and judgment. Ready to serve and no on the job training.” – Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23232655/

In fact, up until today, the Republican party is still using these (its only tools), fear and inexperience, to assail the president, just as the lagging Nacionalista Party is. The NP will no doubt continue to use these when they fail to scare their way into Malacañang.

Mr Villar’s scare tactics also takes a page from jailed President Erap’s campaign book, the one about poverty and hunger and his mythological rise from its ranks, to divide the voting public. However, the poor—just like the middle-class and the rich—were not born yesterday.

The hope that Filipinos have for Senator Aquino’s climb to the presidency isn’t based on fear; Senator Aquino doesn’t create false hope, that his story, growing up under the guidance of Philippine heroes, will be our story.

The popularity of Noynoy Aquino rests solely on their belief that when he takes the oath of office as the 15^th president of the Philippines, he will be, from day one, of clean conscience and with genuine sympathy for the poor. And, contrary to Villar’s copycat press release, Filipinos everywhere believe that he will be a president who will in fact deliver them from scandals, corruption, and the use of power for personal and political gain.

These are attributes that Mr Villar will have to build hastily, and without a suitable blueprint. Something he will no doubt accomplish at the Filipinos’ expense. In that, he may be the most experienced candidate of them all.

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Carlos P. Garchitorena wrote this piece and blogs at makethecopybigger.  He believes that “there are few captions in this universe that can make the wild even wilder.  The beauteous sublime, and the grotesque attractive to meticulous scrutiny.”

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