53. Metaphors of 2016

The metaphor of the straight path, "Tuwid na Daan" may have been a clever device that got this Administration elected after a corrupt regime, but it doesn't look like it can have an extended run. This Administration failed in the delivery of basic transportation services, and hardly anyone would like to be associated with a road these days, much less be traveling on one. I spent five hours on the EDSA last Tuesday, September 8, 2015, inching our way to the Mall of Asia and back in the middle of the rain, and monitoring how everyone else was doing; they were doing no worse. Meanwhile, the radio had Mar Roxas's commercial repeating his "Daang Matuwid" spiel more than once per hour, which irritated me and convinced me that he was probably spending all that money for people not to vote for him instead. Continuity is, of course, the message but continuity from an era of botched police operations, MRT accidents, and unfulfilled promises like the Freedom of Information Law is unwise. These Mar Roxas people are spending too much time with their sycophants and bootlickers that they don't realize they're headed to loserdom. With barely eight months left before the elections, it is too late to reinvent a new metaphor to reenergize Mar Roxas's campaign, and it has no choice but to stick to its propaganda line. Meanwhile, Binay and Duterte have not chosen theirs. I saw a youtube ad of Grace Poe with the 2004 FPJ theme, "Bagong Umaga",  literally new dawn.  The choice was very tasteful of FPJ when he used it in 2004. If the daughter would use it for her campaign, it would equally connote the idea of change and hope. It sounds fresh but familiar; it would work well as a contrast to the tired cliche of "Tuwid na Daan." A new dawn always carries a message of hope and change. It opens our eyes to new possibilities, new experiences, and new energies. If I heard that song in the middle of the rain and traffic in EDSA last Tuesday, I would be a Grace Poe convert for good. It would be telling myself this traffic nightmare would end soon. Bring me to the next day. I want to get to tomorrow now. No more incompetence and blaming others for this mess. I want new hope. Unfortunately, the Grace Poe campaign is going to face legal hurdles by her enemies' design. The danger is that the legal issues hounding her might sap her energies, and then we  end up with a President whose election would stand in the balance of the Supreme Court. If that happens, then only a technical elucidation of the law and its application would resolve it, and the only metaphor that we would be looking at is the blindfolded Lustitia and her scale.