Letter from Rene Saguisag to VP Jojo Binay

As sent via email to the Black & White Movement:

Dear Veep Jojo:

After an absence of 31/2 years, despite my being unwell, dealing with health and emotional issues, I have appeared in person in more than one TV network on Marcos and the Libingan, a hot potato PNoy tossed to you. Soon, you will have to choose between being principled or pragmatic.

I do hope we in MABINI can meet soon, and see whether like two meetings ago, it looked like we had been transformed (not transmogrified) into MaBinay for 1916. But, your handling of the issue may help us judge with finality whether you have what it takes.

Petain was a great French Hero in WW I. He is remembered for the Battle of Verdun ("they shall not pass") but was discredited in World War for his role in the Vichy Government. He died in prison in 1951. I am not aware of any talk to move him to the French pantheon. The kinder forgiving Pinoy simply drove FM to exile.

I am flooded with texts asking that I text my position to you. It is widespread. I even got a taxt this morning from the U.S.with the same message. You seem to be adopting an SWS approach, that of Mahar Mangahas, with whom you and I would play basketball a long time ago in St. Scho. Do not trench on Mahar's turf. PNoy did not ask you to conduct a poll. You cannot say "the people made me do it." When we voted NO on the bases in 1991, the polls did not matter; we defied public opinion and chose to be on the right side of history, in our view.

I am reminded of Burke saying that a leader owes us "not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays it instead of serving [us] if he sacrifices it to [our] opinion." You should not sense where the public is going and then jump there, ahead, as leader.

We, MABINI remnants, await your position and guidance NOW. Principled, not pragmatic. Leadership.

Jojo, pakitandaan ang ating dinanas nuong umiiral pa ang walang habag na batas militar. Gigiyagisin kami ng dalamhati pag ikaw ay nagtaksil sa iyong kauri.

But, OK, in the real world out there, you can marry principle and pragmatism by a change in name: LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI AT PANGULO, preserving the disjunction. You won't be competing with pollsters, either.

Ang katoto mo sa MABINI at kapwa mo Makateno.

Rene Saguisag
UIOGD