By Harvey S. Keh

THE growing euphoria about the Presidential bid of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has been attributed mainly to him being the only son of the martyred former Senator Ninoy Aquino and the well-loved former President Cory Aquino. The Filipino people who have grown tired of the rampant graft and corruption practices perpetuated by leaders of this present administration are now looking for a leader who has integrity, right moral values and can inspire Filipinos to once again dream and work for a better future. They saw all of those qualities in Ninoy and Cory, naturally many of them now see it in their heir apparent, Noynoy.

Despite this, one cannot also say that Noynoy hasn’t earned his own stripes in the realm of politics and governance having been a well-performing Congressman who represented Tarlac for nine years and now being a member of the Senate for the past two years. Many question his legislative record but a brief check on the kinds of laws he has authored or helped craft would indicate that his main focus has been on preserving the integrity of democratic institutions and the promotion of transparency and social accountability in our government institutions. These are areas where the present government has found to be lacking especially when it comes to social accountability wherein not one person involved in the Fertilizer Scam, Hello Garci, Swine Scam and the NBN-ZTE Broadband deal has actually been tried and put to jail.

Another second generation political aspirant that looks very promising is current Bukidnon Rep. TG Guingona, who recently left the Nacionalista Party of Senator Manny Villar in favor of being drafted by the Liberal Party-led People’s Coalition as the official Kaya Natin Movement-backed Senatorial candidate in the coalition. TG is the son of known nationalist and former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., who is also known to have been a staunch ally of former President Aquino. TG was also a former classmate of Noynoy during their early days at the Ateneo de Manila University. TG’s main advocacy is the promotion of greater transparency in the use of the National Budget. He has been going around the country to educate people with regard to how the more than a trillion peso budget is used and misused by the present administration. Aside from this, he continues to work with Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon in promoting the passage of a Disaster Mitigation and Management Law that would help our country prepare for future calamities as we have seen in Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

On the local government front, Joy Belmonte-Alimurung, the only daughter of current Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte will be running for Vice-Mayor. After graduating from Ateneo de Manila University, Joy decided to join the Jesuit Volunteer Philippines (JVP) and was assigned to live in a rural village in Bukidnon for a year to teach children coming from indigenous communities. Moreover, she has continued to serve as President of the Quezon City Ladies Foundation which continues to develop cultural programs and provide livelihood opportunities to women who live in depressed areas. Since last year, she has also consistently provided leadership and social entrepreneurship training to youth leaders coming from different baranggays in Quezon City. Apart from these, she realizes that helping manage one of the largest cities in the country is no walk in the park thus she has made it a priority to prepare for the position by studying Urban Planning and Development at the University of the Philippines (UP).

These three scions of highly-accomplished political leaders in our country will be hard-pressed to fill the big shoes that have been left behind by their parents. Yet, just by looking at their past track records of maintaining integrity in their effective delivery of public service, we can all feel confident that they will not only make their parents proud but more importantly, they will make each of us feel proud to be called a Filipino.

Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com

Harvey S. Keh is Director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo School of Government.