FPJ and the economy
Tony Lopez had a conversation with FPJ and asked him about the economy. FPJ's reply was:

I’ll try to bring back people’s trust in the government. They (my political opponents) seem to forget that particular word—trust. We should bring back trust. If you don’t have trust in a person, then the relationship is finished. It’s like swimming. If there is a lifeguard and you trust him, you go swimming, if there are no lifeguards then you don’t feel confident swimming.

The pivotal question though is: Do the country's businessmen trust FPJ as a lifeguard? This is important because the D and E class may trust FPJ all they want, but they barely constitute a national economy by themselves. Economy means businessmen which constitute a sizable proprtion of the country's elites who, rightly or not, are contemptous of FPJ's gall to run for president. A recent survey commissioned by Makati Business Club among its members yielded zero--not one, not two-- but a resounding zero vote for FPJ. And there is no sign in the horizon that the negative perception of the country's elites will change any time soon.

The only reason why the country's elites and managerial classes are barely tolerating FPJ's candidacy is that they are not quite intellectually rigorous enough (plus perhaps the natural conservative inertia of people doing well in the status quo) to reject majoritarian rule altogether.

FPJ is cruisin' for a major bruisin'. He does not know it yet, but he will know soon enough. It is only the Americans that we fully trust. FPJ insists he is a Filipino. He may be right.