Talk is cheap at the palace.

POST-SABBATICAL NOTES. AUGUST 10, 2014. SUNDAY. N1. 
Talk is cheap at the palace. 

EMPSON is one heck of a theoretician who has written about the seven types of ambiguity. And Ellul, somewhere, has talked of the meaning of propaganda as 'the operation of all the media at once. '

Here are loose talks bouncing off from a variety of sources, each one non-committal including Mar Roxas' trial balloon of the possibility of P-Noy extending his term of six years.

Roxas, ever the errand boy and ready to take the flak if only to become president like his ancestor somewhere in time, has said that P-Noy, of course, does not know what the Roxas man is talking about.

And then today, we are assaulted by this ambiguities of all types and propaganda of all types as well coming from Malacañan, that palace of ineptitude by the filthy river.

The excuse of all these loose talks is that P-Noy should not be distracted from all these things--that he has to concentrate on the things that he need to do before he says goodbye to the palace factotum and to reciting flatteries to a suffering people.

Part of the ambiguity is the deployment of metaphors that do not have any intention of dying: 'the people are my bosses,' 'the desire of the people,' 'the people have spoken,' and so on down the line.

We cannot justify not following the constitution by referring to one's good intention of service.

An overstaying inept leader is an overstaying inept leader even if, for all intents and purposes, that leader was able to imprison three senators and more. That is HIS job: to do things right.

We 'his people' did not ask him to become president; he had that illusion is asking him to become one, heard that illusion, sought that position, and ergo, he must deliver.

If he is a good leader, he must pave the way to the next one, with a good intention, with a good heart, and with the competence to lead a country whose economy is made afloat by the remittances of more than 10M of its people.

Unless--unless--we believe again in that mantra, 'this country can be great again.'

That one, of course, is a ruse.