Chiz Escudero is like Barack Obama

Being brown Americans at heart and because most of us have at least one relative in the United States, we Filipinos couldn't help but celebrate with America when Barack Obama won the 2009 elections.

Perhaps not a few Filipinos in the Philippines had hoped to have a President like Barack Obama.

Just recently, I discovered that at least two people (le Reine and venntro) skyscraper city forum made references to a post I made about the ANC Leadership Forum. The entry of mine that was reposted on the Skyscraper forum basically dealt with the lies pandered by Senator Francis Chiz Escudero and I had originally intended to critique all the other candidates -- which I haven't gotten around to doing just yet.

Anyway, somewhere after their references to my post, I stumbled upon a post by Loredepico which basically compared Escudero with Barack Obama.

He wrote:

Based on legislative achievements, we can indeed compare Chiz with Barack. Both are great speakers and both were unproductive legislators. But we all know what happened to Obama and with the Filipino electorates being easily swayed by rhetorics, who knows how Chiz will fare. Right now, he is really placing high on the various presidentiable surveys. All I am hoping is for the voters to be more discerning.

And I share Loredepico's hope that Filipinos will be more discerning about who they will vote for and lap up the crud some Presidential candidates are feeding the public right now.

First of all, there are big differences between Obama and Chiz.

Obama really came from a working class background. Chiz did not. Obama proved himself as leader in his own district first before eventually rising to become senator. Chiz spent three terms as Congressman in Sorsogon and I am not really aware about what he has to show for it. The cop out answer would be that he was a congressman, therefore not responsible for stuff that the mayors and governors ought to do.

What bills did Chiz Escudero author or sponsor? If someone can tell me, please do because I don't want to get the idea that he did nothing before gaining popularity as a vocal Anti-GMA solon.

Chiz is great at talking up a storm against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo but he is silent on what he can actually DO to turn things around. He knows what he doesn't want, but he can't say what he does want.

Or perhaps, it would be better stated to say that Chiz wants Gloria out as President. Well, that's something that can easily be achieved and he really doesn't have to do anything to make it happen. All he has to do is keep being noisy and while waiting for the 2010 elections. Thereafter, by June 30, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will step down as President and he can even hold a victory party to claim credit for getting the President to step down.

Once Gloria Macapagal Arroyo steps down as President, Chiz (if he doesn't get elected as President) will probably have to pick on the next Philippine President and try to act up a storm as the shallow opposition firebrand that he is again.

It is actually to the best interest of Senator Escudero that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remains in power, because railing at Arroyo is the only thing he can do and without the President, he'd actually have to face up to the task of actually doing something that might be called work.

Anyway, this comparison between Barack and Chiz got me thinking.

Let's suspend reality for a moment and ask "What if Barack Obama ran for President in the Philippines?"

My first answer would be that he would lose.

Why?

It is for the simple reason that most Filipinos who are taken by Chiz's empty rhetoric will not be able to understand the implications of Barack's message of Hope and Change.