Aquino warns voters: Don’t pick ‘ampaw’

MANILA, Philippines—Who could President Aquino be referring to?

Aquino on Thursday came out with his own criteria for his successor in 2016, his list topped by a warning that voters shouldn’t settle for “ampaw” (rice crispies) candidates—meaning those lacking in substance.

“In essence, who really has substance and who is ampaw?” he asked during an open forum with students of Hope Christian High School in Manila.

“With ampaw, you might be happy for a while but after 10 minutes, you’re hungry because there’s nothing in it,” the President said in Filipino, referring to the puffed rice food often sold to bus passengers by itinerant peddlers. The term is also a pejorative for people lacking in substance.

Target of critics

Aquino himself was the target of critics who questioned his competence to run the country during the 2010 presidential election campaign.

Put under scrutiny during the campaign was his legislative record—the number of bills he filed and how many of them eventually became laws—in his nine years at the House of Representatives and three years in the Senate.

But riding on a wave of sympathies following the death of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, and his anticorruption agenda, Aquino topped the election.

With still two years to go before the 2010 election, Vice President Jejomar Binay has already announced his intention to run for President, quitting his longtime political party to form a new one for his Palace run.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran under the administration ticket in 2013, has also indicated a similar interest.

‘It starts from top’

In a separate open forum at the Ateneo Professional Schools in Makati City on Wednesday night, Aquino rejected the idea that corruption had remained “rampant” under his watch.

“I am practically four years into the job. I have not been accused (of), there’s no intrigue that I am into corruption,” Aquino said.

He added: “It starts from the top. If the top is corrupt, then everybody will have a justification to be corrupt.”

SWS survey

In the 2013 Social Weather Stations (SWS) Survey of Enterprises on Corruption, 56 percent of top businessmen in the country said they were seeing “a lot” of corruption in the public sector. The figure was up from 43 percent the year before.

Faced with such results, Malacañang opted to focus on the part of the survey showing that 73 percent of the respondents were convinced of the government’s anticorruption efforts.

At the Hope Christian High School forum, Aquino was asked about the “three major qualities” first-time voters should look for in the next president.

He enumerated more than three, saying his successor should not only be competent but should also possess faith, humility and should be a “man for others.”

Playing cute?

“Are the words coming out of his mouth true or do they just sound good?” Aquino said. “When you watch him delivering a speech, or in the campaign trail, is he saying something sensible? Or is he just dancing or singing or playing cute?”

The President cited the importance of “continuity” between a candidate’s “actions and his words,” saying it “has to be demonstrated consistently before … you should start (putting) your trust in him or her.”

Aquino said his successor should be a “man for others.”

“Is it clear that his actions are directed toward the welfare of others, or for his own good?” he said.

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