“By their fruits you shall know them.” — Matthew 7:20

The coming national election in 2010 will be vintage Philippine politics.

It will be the survival of the fittest and the triumph of vested interests. It will be the perpetuation of the politics of personality and money. Be that as it may, 2010 is an historic crossroad and Rubicon of Philippine politics. It will determine the viability of the political system and democracy.

For these reasons, it is vital that the Filipino people pursue serious and scrupulous evaluation of the presidential contenders to determine not only their intellectual superiority, honesty and integrity but also their character and peripheral excess baggage whether it be their extended families, wife or husband, business connections, religion, or regional loyalty.

First, it is not an idle exercise to undertake extensive vetting of front-running candidates. Vetting is defined as in-depth investigations specifically to ensure that they are suitable for a job requiring intellect, secrecy, loyalty, and trustworthiness.

With vetting comes the “minders.” They are professionals whose job is to look after someone, or a candidate, or a celebrity, or cliques of them as “advisers” who tend to guide the principal in their own image and motivations.

If truth be told, in-depth vetting in the Philippines is seldom done, cursory, and superficial.

On the other hand, “minders” can be doting “baby-sitters,” patriotic, honest, do-gooders, or ambitious, corrupt, selfish, or Machiavellian.

Second, all Philippine presidents have had their coterie or menagerie of “minders,” euphemistically given the titles of presidential advisers or presidential assistants, or kitchen cabinet, or golf cronies.

They inflict influence on the Chief Executive to a lesser or greater degree depending on the independence of mind of the president, intellectual shortcomings, or ennui or boredom of the responsibilities of the office.

It goes without saying that these “minders” are skilled craftsmen, intellectual, smart, highly educated, experienced, adroit operators, can be ruthless, loyal, and corruptible.

In the United States, for example, research and vetting are thorough and exhaustive in their evaluation of a candidate’s suitability for office starting from one’s playmates in Kinder, to testing “pot” or marijuana in high school, to college sweethearts, to trying to evade military service during the Vietnam war, or extra-marital affairs.

No stone is left unturned.

Thus, presidential hopefuls whose family pedigrees, fortune, character, foibles, temperament, intellect, track record, scholastic achievements, character of the espouses (very influential), and universities attended, whether Ateneo, UP, Harvard, Oxford, Berkeley, or Cebu, Surigao, Bacolor, or San Fernando, should be thoroughly analyzed.

Hence aberrations from these vetting requirements necessitate the entry of advisers and “minders” who may wield undue influence on the principal that he becomes a “puppet” president to Palace Richelieus.

Indeed, this can happen to Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III who has become an instant presidential frontrunner of which very little is known of his experience, capability, character, and outlook other than being the son of Ninoy and Cory, and brother of Kris.

This is not to be construed as being facetious but more of alarm, and serious concern vis-à-vis governance, public interest, and country.

When all is said and done, the Cory “minders” of Sen. Noynoy Aquino may already be doing a disservice to the nation by their excessive hyping of Sen. Aquino.

On the other hand, with his pedigree, illustrious family ancestry, and honesty, he might yet make a difference provided he distances himself from the Church and “minders” with selfish interests.

You be the judge. (For comments and views, please e-mail: chaff_fromthegrain@yahoo.com.ph)