by Lito Cleofe

Jim Paredes, the writer and musician interviewed President Noynoy three weeks into his presidency and saw in him a confident chief executive.

Excerpts of this interview were included here to illustrate the personality of PNoy.

The focus was on the person of Noynoy and did not cover politics and policies. This way we as Filipinos would better understand the president.

In conjunction with this interview, we included too PNoy interviews and insights of Candy Cruz in May 1, 2010 and Karim Raslan of Jakarta Globe’s point of view on PNoy as a  thoughtful and pragmatic leader. Cruz said that contrary to what many think, PNoy is a pragmatic and process-driven leader.

Jim Paredes saw in PNoy glimpse of the idealism, sense of duty and honor of PNoy, which he inherited from both his parents.

Candy Cruz, daughter of the late Ambassador JV Cruz sees in PNoy the gall, intellect and stubbornness of his Dad, and the humility, spirituality and thoughtfulness of his Mom as a person. That, she says is an explosive combination. A good head and a big heart.

When the public sees PNoy nowadays – it’s puro picture taking daw. But beneath the pop star presence of photo ops is the depth and wide interests on varied topics. In Candy Cruz’ words PNoy is well informed on everything about the country, the constitution, his kind of politics and books. He could talk about books quoting from authors from the top of his head.

There were touches of literature, history and philosophy as means to understanding one’s character. PNoy has an Ateneo de Manila liberal arts education in history, literature, philosophy, arts, languages, theology, sociology, humanities, math, science, and economics in a Catholic tradition.

He identifies himself with del Pilar among our national heroes. Idea of duty, sacrifice. A small force against all odds: a superior force, better armed. Another one, he identifies with Lapu Lapu – not intimidated by technologically superior and unknown entity. And Lapu Lapu prevailed.

In the service of man PNoy likes JFK, Mandela and Edison. His attitude is service for others rather himself.

Passionate about many topics.

“Passionate about solving a long-time problem like corruption. I know somebody’s corrupt… Here he throws a lot of reflective questions to tear apart the possible dimensions of corruption and its consequences. Tumatagal ba sayo ang nakurakot mo? Ano ba yung cost ng kinurakot mo?

Sino ba ang namundok dahil diyan? Paano ba nagging kapaki-pakinabang sayo na pasukan yan? Kung hindi sayo ang epekto, pano kaya ang anak mo? ‘Yung anak mo, sabihin nating napag-aral mo ng maayos, naghanap ng empleyado with technical skills, language skills, wala siyang makuhang empleyado dahil na-deprive ng education. I tend to try and convince them at the end of the day, no matter which avenue you go through, wala ring nakinabang diyan. In switching between Tagalog and English, PNoy shows his fluency in both languages.”

“The dream is to have enough of a momentum, so the people can get used to a government that is really there for them and works, so that the person who comes after you cannot but follow in your footsteps and continue the process.”

PNoy has an incredible sense of humor. Here is an example: when asked “What are your comfort clothes?

“Maong. When I’m at home, shorts, tsaka ‘yung shirts na hapit. When we were in Malacañang in my Mom’s time, I had a Grade 5 T-shirt that was very loose, and that was her pet peeve. ‘Yung mga threadbare na undershirts, for instance. There were points when she didn’t have a busy schedule and she would raid my cabinet and remove all of these things and give them to the help and say, gamitin niyo nang trapo ‘to. So when I got back, I would be looking for them. Habulan kami.”

“Sabi niya, maawa ka naman sa naglalaba. Parang tinitingnan pa lang, napupunit na sa kanipis-nipis…”

“How do you deal with criticism that’s really just mean-spirited?
If I pay attention to it, then I would try to turn the tables and show them or at least the other people kung gaano ka-unreasonable nito and apply my strength on the reasonable ones. But I try to purposely control myself. I tell everyone, o mga kasama, hindi tayo pwede magalit, hindi tayo pwede mapikon,  hindi tayo pwede mainis, hindi tayo pwede maasar. Maraming hindi pwede rito.  Focus lang tayo parati sa, eto ang aabutin natin.”

“What inspires you to keep going despite the problems, some of which you know are probably intractable?”

“Why will I give up if I think the goal that we have set for ourselves is worthwhile? It really redounds to the common good. Why should we be distracted?”

“So long as we are convinced, sige, tuloy na! Naniniwala naman ako na kung hindi ko kaya, bahala na ang Diyos. Tutulungan na niya ako dun.”

“What’s the best thing about being Filipino?”

“One is it’s very easy for a Filipino to smile. ‘Pag napunta ka sa urban areas, parang tinuturuan na ‘wag ka parati nakangiti, baka
akalain nila, promdi, madali kang utuin, madali ito lokohin, etc. But when you go to the province, it’s so easy for everybody to start breaking into a smile.”

“It talks also of the resiliency… Ang dami ng dagok na inabot natin dito. Ang sama nga ng government natin for so many years. Ang daming pagsubok ang nagsamantala sa atin. Mga invaders and so on and so forth. But no matter how down we are, we’re still proud to be Filipino. Then, the Filipino in the right environment can really prosper and can surpass so many other races. So, dito tayo nakaka-succeed in modest ways in different conditions. If we could live in good conditions that could nurture all of these aspirations… ano kaya ang maaabot natin?”

Lito Cleofe can be contacted at radyopilipino@gmail.com.