Apparently, people still want to know why President Noynoy Aquino did not even bother to visit Tacloban City to mark the anniversary last week of the devastation at the epicenter of the disaster. The short answer, for me, is because Aquino is basically a bully and a coward.
Let me illustrate: If you still don’t know why Aquino did not go to Tacloban, you only need to know what Aquino said in Beijing, where he is now attending the leaders’ summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization.
I’m certain that, if Aquino could have avoided going to the Apec meeting, he would have. But because he would lose so much face if he didn’t go to a meeting of heads of state where is actually invited, Aquino swallowed his pride and went—after deciding to ratchet down the anti-China rhetoric and pretend to be the very soul of harmony and mutual co-existence.
“On a state visit here in 2011, we were very heartened to hear then President Hu Jintao [say that] the be-all and end-all of our relationships does not have to be just one particular issue,” the suddenly peace-loving Aquino said in the Chinese capital, referring to the tension in the West Philippine Sea. “[Hu said] there are so many other aspects of our relationship.”
Of course, when he is in the Philippines, Aquino never misses an opportunity to issue veiled warlike warnings against the Chinese. Remember how he declared during one State of the Nation Address that “what is ours is ours; Recto Bank is no different from Recto Avenue”?
Aquino, like all bullies, is really a coward. He knew he could not get away with hectoring the Chinese where they lived, despite all his previous jingoistic rhetoric—so he had to play the unusual role (for him, anyway) of President-statesman in Beijing.
Now, remember how Aquino has always blamed the devastation in Tacloban City on the local government, which—surprise, surprise—is headed by a member of the Romualdez clan that is his family’s sworn political enemy. His chosen emissary, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, was even caught on tape explaining why, because of the family names of the President and of the mayor, the city can never expect any help from the national government.
And in Guiuan, far away from Tacloban, Aquino was once again free to act the bully, castigating those who have been criticizing his government for failing to adequately respond to the calamity. Because he is a bully and a coward, he can’t very well do that in Tacloban, right?
Perhaps the next President will not be as fake-tough and as cowardly as this one. The people of Tacloban and other places where people have the misfortune of being ruled by political opponents of Aquino, who have already suffered so much, don’t deserve a President so vengeful that he will punish them all for electing his enemies.
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I’ve been informed that Senate President Franklin Drilon has recently established a record that no politician in his right mind will really envy. Drilon now supposedly holds the dubious distinction of having the most number of complaints for plunder filed against him.
The plunder complaint filed recently by former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada against Drilon in connection with the allegedly overpriced Iloilo Convention Center is only the latest in a string of plunder complaints filed against the veteran Ilonggo politician. Earlier plunder complaints were filed against Drilon for his role in the Jalaur Dam project that is now the subject of a writ of kalikasan; for alleged overpricing of a P63.2 million relocation site purchased using Drilon’s pork barrel funds in San Isidro, Iloilo City; for the alleged hiring of an unqualified contractor for P87.2 million to clean up an oil spill in the aftermath of Yolanda in Estancia; for the alleged substandard construction of the Iloilo Hall of Justice building using his pork barrel funds; for the alleged overpricing of the Iloilo Esplanade Two project, still in Iloilo; and similar complaints for misappropriation of public funds relating to the Disbursement Acceleration Program funds given to legislators and for his role in the alleged misuse of P900 million Malampaya Fund.
(As an aside, I’ve also been told that members of the Aquino administration’s Cabinet have already surpassed the record for the most number of plunder complaints filed against any such group of Executive officials in all previous governments. Of course, these do not yet include the cases that are expected to be filed against President Noynoy Aquino himself, when his immunity from suit expires in 2016.)
Under pressure to go after their own colleague, members of the Senate yellow (I mean blue) ribbon committee have declared that they will start their investigation of Drilon in relation to Mejorada’s complaint this week. But because Drilon is facing charges in connection with his alleged misuse of the same pork and DAP funds that practically all of the Senate also gobbled up, I have serious doubts if such a probe will get anywhere.
Drilon has always said that the charges against him are baseless and malicious. Let’s see what Baseless and Malicious, the two senators who are now busy grilling Vice President Jejomar Binay, will do to Drilon when his case comes up.
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