The Philippine bishops were supposed to be unable to point to possible worthy presidents. They certainly would not find one if they are looking for angel or one who will make no mistakes. That is the human condition. With all the good will and moral preparation the candidates will have their faults because they do not and can not see everything. Everyone will have defects. As my mother used to say:

"Everyone goes to the toilet." Picturesquely put in Tagalog: Walang tao na walang butas ang puet. No candidate will be perfect and we have to live with that. On the other hand we can choose the least problematic. For this very reason the Church in her Bishops cannot endorse anyone for he will certainly make mistakes. And the Church will be blamed for his mistakes. They can only try to eliminate those who are unworthy. It is a question of degrees of competence and concern for the common good.

President Erap wants to run again. He certainly is pro poor but he seems to have failed to control the people who act in his name. They are also accusing Among Panlilio of this. Sen. Villar is an efficient executive but they accuse him of cutting corners when he sees an opportunity to make money. Sen. Escudero is young and he will not have the experience needed. He will have his chance later. The same is true for Sec. Teodoro. Sen. Legarda has plenty of experience and exposure but the chauvinists do not want another woman. Sen. Gordon touts his accomplishments in Olongapo but the complaint is that he is not universal enough. Vice President De Castro is popular but they want someone more innovative for President. Few have heard of the prowess of executives like Bayani Fernando, Jesus Perlas, Mayor Duterte, Mayor Robredo, Gov. Padaca, Gov. Hagedor, Gov. Salceda, Mayor Belmonte, and a host of others who would be excellent presidents but each one of them would have a "but" after his strength or virtue. To say that we cannot find a worthy candidate in 80 million citizens is not true. But each one will have an Achilles heel. Who says we have to have an angel?

Whoever is the candidate we choose or whoever is elected should consider two developments in governance. One is the social democracy experience of Germany for the past sixty years. They modified the free market concept by placing a ceiling to self seeking.

Democratic free market is supposed to be motivated with pure greed. But with everybody's greed in play against each other, the theory is that an invisible hand kicks in that moderates these tendencies. In the German social democracy they did not wait for this invisible hand to operate but convinced every one that they should limit in their self aggrandizement to 90% for example and leave the balance open for negotiation with the other stakeholders in the economy. The second innovation is the Tutsi President of Kenya who uses social group instruments to get former enemies to gather and ask pardon from each other and promise to help each other. He seems to have had a big success. <emeterio_barcelon@yahoo.com>