“The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and avoids the sight of distress.” — W. Somerset Maugham

With the end of her constitutional term just around the corner, the task of rehabilitating the economy and the lives of people is daunting, and cannot be immediate. The burden falls on her successor.

Picking up the debris brought about by successive typhoons and rebuilding cities and towns, farms and public works, and distracted by the forthcoming Presidential elections, the onus of picking up the pieces will fall on the lap of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s successor as he grapples with the double whammy of an economy down on its knees and a budget deficit that my balloon beyond the conventional wisdom of not more than 3% of GDP.

For example, it will be sometime before La Trinidad valley will recover its status as the country’s premier vegetable garden. Moreover, had the holistic Agno River Basin Development (ARBDC) plans and projects, including flood control, been pursued and completed, the massive flooding of Pangasinan would have been mitigated substantially.

As we have opined, 2010 will be a Rubicon crossroad of history that will close a decade that witnessed a President who was ousted from office by people power and convicted of plunder; a tumultuous and coup-proned Arroyo administration, an economy buffeted by the global financial meltdown of 2008, and topped by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

For these reasons, despite the tireless efforts of President Gloria Arroyo to mitigate the sufferings, discomfort, and economic dislocation of the people, there is very little, other than patch-up works here and there, that can be achieved between now and the advent of the election season in the next few months when economic activities tend to slow down, and the election fever takes center stage.

Thus, for the remaining seven months, the Arroyo administration would have racked up a huge budgetary deficit that will see to it that the people will always have enough rice supplies of affordable prices, and the repair of the most critical infrastructure, such as, bridges, power, and communications.

It follows that the next President’s highest priority will be to look for money and reduce the deficit while being pressured to continue spending on infrastructure and boosting productivity.

It is an awesome task for the economy nearly wholly dependent on the services sector and OFW “subsidies” or remittances for survival.

Who, therefore, among the leading presidential aspirants, have the integrity, experience, capability, political courage, and intellect to lead the nation in 2010 in view of the Herculean challenges ahead?

Will it be former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Defense Sec. Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Sen. Manny Villar, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, or Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero?

When all is said and done, it is critical for the Filipino people, and the nation as a whole, to elect a President based on merit, character, leadership and intellect, rather than on media hype, memories, theater, and sentimentalism.

Truth to tell, while the global economy is now on a recovery mode and restoring universal confidence, the Philippine may still be sweeping away the last of the muck and mud in their living rooms, and thus miss the bus again.

The task, of reducing the deficit while resuscitating productivity and spending on much needed social services, is the acid test.

Indeed, a daunting task.

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