Subtlety Was Never Kris' Strong Suit

Wallflower.

(Courtesy of philnews.ph)

That is one word that can hardly be associated with television host, perennial endorser and presidential sister Kris Aquino. Since her introduction to the public eye from when she was quite young, she has made no secret about her intentions to become famous - and has proceeded to singularly achieve this goal, up to the present time.

How she traversed this route to celebrity status is cause for much, er, comment. I don't know of anyone (locally) who has regularly paraded her personal affairs in so carefree a manner, that even if you were the least interested person with regards to showbiz, it would be virtually impossible to not have known about how she contracted a sexually transmitted disease, or her predilection for basketball players, and quite recently, the revealing state of her annulment.

Whatever she does, it's loud, out there, and ready for public scrutiny. Or, as some would label more accurately, begging for public scrutiny.

Today, I woke up from a short nap, and found out that Kris has thrown her hat in the political ring. Specifically, she has decided to run for the position of governor, in their home province of Tarlac, come 2016. (You can read more about it here.)

Reading through the news item, she gave a rather revealing statement, one I wish to highlight.

"The incumbent (Tarlac) governor Vic Yap is now running for his last term. He said he would give it to me (to run for)"

I have never heard of such a blatant description of how political clans view these elective positions. And, Kris being Kris, she cannot help but be blunt about it.

For years, we have been trying the delicadeza tack: sounding out to these out-and-out political dynasties about their blatantly unconstitutional stranglehold on their positions, bouncing the same posts to their spouse, mistress, children, uncles/aunts, and even their manicurists, keeping it all "in the family," so to speak.

And for those same number of years, the usual response we get from them is a variation of the same line: "there's no enabling law!" and "let the people decide! It's because they want us!" They have skirted around what many of us have been thinking: ano yan, ipinamamana ang posisyon?

It took someone like Kris to finally, verbally, and specifically, admit that people of her (political) stature view these positions as a given, theirs by some kind of right.

It may be time to change our form of government into a monarchy.

Thank you, Kris, for never being subtle.