BENIGNO SIMEON COJUANGCO AQUINO III, 15th President-elect of the Republic of The Philippines after Emilio Famy Aguinaldo (and not including their predecessors Manuel Luis Quezon, Andres Bonifacio and Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda et al), may take his oath of office on the 30th of June 2010 not necessarily before the (until May the 17th) Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno nor his successor (if Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will have her way), the next High Court CJ Renato Corona.
Noynoy Aquino as President may swear allegiance to The Philippines, to our flag and to the 100 million Filipino people in the country and in 100 countries that he will do “his utmost best” by the blessings of God and his heroic parents (Ninoy and Cory Aquino) before 21 “ordinary Filipino” representatives symbolizing 21 sectors that comprise Philippine society in the 21st century.
This is in keeping with the spirit, essence, substance, style and form of the First EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986 that catapulted a housewife into power which equalized a 20-year martial reign by a strongman.
Members of the High Tribunal together with the Archbishop of Manila and all the spiritual leaders of all religions or Faiths that keep our nation alive plus the nine presidential candidates who did not make it to the polls, may serve as great “witnesses” to the Aquino inaugural.
Pangulong Noynoy Aquino may enjoin all other winning candidates in the generally peaceful first automated-counting national and local elections of the 10th of May 2010 from vice president, senators, congressmen, governors, mayors down to the line of councilors, partylisters and all to take their respective oaths of office with him before the 21 sectoral representatives on June 30.
Presidente Noynoy Aquino Inaugural organizers may do the oath-taking not in Luneta or Malakanyang but at the Our Lady of Peace church in the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue, the seat where “Freedom President of The Philippines” Cory Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin used to inspire people.
In the spirit of genuine reconciliation, the Aquino Inaugural organizers may have to make sure that Cielo Macapagal Salgado is there, Imelda, Imee and Bongbong Marcos are there, President Fidel Valdez Ramos and family are there, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Loi Ejercito, Guia Gomez, Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito and family are there, and the whole clan of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be there to show the whole wide world that “ours is a working democracy,” that has the great potential to become “better than America’s or Great Britain’s.”
Heads of states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including, perhaps, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton or Al Gore representing Barack Obama and other leading lights of circa-21 democracies may grace the Aquino inaugural together with the members of the diplomatic corps in Manila.
With such a noble and novel inaugural idea that goes along the tradition of the spirit of the first EDSA, “all is well that ends well.”
And then we can move on, move up and move to the right direction… faster than the speed of thought. If we can pack up in six years or 12 the 900-year democratic reconscientization processes before the French people acquired their Liberte, the better for the millions of Manny Villar’s mga batang paslit sa putikan.#
