Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
President Benigno Aquino III is not endorsing Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas as standard bearer in the 2016 presidential election—not just yet.
A source in Malacañang says Aquino gave Roxas early this year one year to improve his ratings in the popularity surveys as he had been tailing Vice President Jojo Binay for a run of the presidency.
Binay defeated Roxas, who was the President’s running mate, in the vice presidential race in the 2010 elections.
The year will end in a few months but Roxas has not been able to make his ratings go up in the surveys, the Palace source says.
That’s probably the reason Noynoy has changed his mind about making public his endorsement of Roxas as his successor.
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It’s easy to see why Roxas lags behind Binay in getting the people’s trust.
Although both are insincere, most people believe Binay would make a better president than Roxas based on their looks.
Roxas, who comes from an old rich family, is perceived as arrogant because he speaks and acts like a cacique.
Binay, on the other hand, looks “kawawa” (pitiful) and is exploiting it. His unattractive and undignified appearance endears him to the masses.
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The proposal to allow high school graduates to enter the Philippine National Police (PNP) would make for an efficient and disciplined police force.
As I said in Thursday’s column, high school graduates are more pliable and easier to handle than college graduates, a requirement for entry into the PNP.
A law passed a few years ago requires a police applicant to be a college degree holder.
Most policemen, on account of their being college degree holders, refuse to be subjected to discipline and find it below their dignity, for example, to be seen patrolling the streets or directing traffic.
Everybody wants to live up to their title of “officer” which, in the military, applies to those with the rank of lieutenant to general.
An officer in the police stands for police officer, the lowest rank in the PNP.
Their arrogance, stemming from having finished college, means nothing because most of them have a low IQ, can’t speak or write straight English, and have the mentality of a person in his preteens.
The last trait makes them dangerous because like a child, they can’t be entrusted with a gun.
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The Philippine Constabulary (PC), which the PNP replaced, was much more disciplined because its rank and file was composed of high school or elementary school graduates.
PC troopers didn’t take on airs when they were with their superiors, who were college graduates, because they knew their place.
In contrast, a typical police officer 1 (PO1), whose counterpart is that of a private in the Army, doesn’t defer to an inspector (equivalent to a lieutenant in the military) because, to him, both are college degree holders.
In the PNP, everybody thinks he’s boss and this mentality leads to indiscipline in the ranks.
“I have the same educational qualification as the inspector, so why should I salute or obey him?” is what one hears from the lowest-ranked policemen.
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Most policemen who joined the force after the enactment of the law requiring all of them to have a college degree are dregs among college graduates.
Most new policemen are dumb.
If they’re not, why do most of them get into trouble with the law, which they are supposed to uphold?