Saturday, April 30, 2016

Grace Poe’s Identity Crisis

Grace Poe is a puzzle. One would think, that having once been a U.P. scholar before she moved to the United States, and having been exposed to a foreign land she would have developed a fair and healthy appreciation of what she is capable of, what’s meant for her and what isn’t, or at least know when the proper time and place for big moves like running for president would be.




I have that expectation of her because she appears to carry herself as though she has a good head on her shoulders and she speaks as though she is a reasonable person. This impression I had of her was incongruent with everything she has done from the moment she decided to run for president.

It really bothered me that I had to find a way to rationalize it. Why is she behaving this way?

And then it dawned on me: Grace Poe may be suffering from an identity crisis - and an issue on self worth.

From being a foundling, to being adopted, to being the only unknown among her family of big name parents, to discarding her Filipino citizenship to adopting her husband's citizenship then discarding that citizenship again to come back to Filipino citizenship, then running for President to a country that has questioned her citizenship and has cast doubts on her natural born status — so much of these issues boil down to an issue of identity.

My guess is that unconsciously, she is using her run as some sort of validation, a way to get the identity denied her when she was foundling/adoptee/non-superstar. It is a psychological issue that she needs to resolve on her own. The presidency is not something to fix issues of identity and self worth - one must already be a whole person, fully aware of personal issues and capabilities.

The way she has conducted herself as a presidential candidate seems to support this theory. We all heard her suit her language - her promises - depending on who she was talking to. She has pandered to the INC, to Danding Cojuangco (on the coco levy), and to the Ilocanos (re Marcos burial, and BBM). Largely she has parroted the programs of the Daang Matuwid (no unique ideas) and - speaking of parroting - she has started to eerily speak like Chiz Escudero. "When you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything,” it is said. That is Grace Poe for you.

Grace Poe doesn’t know who she is, what she can do, and what she brings to the table. The only reason to make sense of her running - aside from the prodding of vested interests - is that she is doing this for herself.

Identity is destiny. If elected president, where will Grace Poe take the Philippines if she is still resolving who she is?

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