If you do a quick search on the internet, or ask on the street about common causes of death in Filipino society, you are most likely to hear things like smoking, heart disease, violence-related deaths, obesity, road traffic accidents, and so on and so forth. Recent events in Sabah with the men from the sultanate of Sulu, however, have brought to the forefront that there is another cause of death in Filipino society. This one is not really discussed commonly, or in good company but it nevertheless persists and cannot be ignored.
It’s called Noynoy’s incompetence.
Let’s do the obvious numbers:
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8 hostages dead in the mishandled Mendoza hostage incident in 2010.
At least 1,500 dead in the mismanaged response to typhoon Sendong last December 2011
At least 1000 confirmed deaths in another mismanaged calamity response, this time with Typhoon Pablo last December 2012.
Two years and counting that the Aquino administration has failed to curb human rights abuses. Statistics vary, but the newspaper Sunstar is quoted on November 29, 2012, that 114 is the number of extrajudicial killings that have taken place ever since BS Aquino became president.
And now, at least 12 dead in the clashes that occurred between Malaysian forces and the forces of the Sultanate of Sulu. The number is only going to go up from here.
Let us also remember that as a congressman in 2004, BS Aquino simply dismissed as illegal the strike at Hacienda Luisita that later resulted in at least 7 dead and hundreds injured. 8 years and counting later, the case has not been resolved, nor do I think there is any plan to.
[Photo courtesy: Macky Ramirez]
BS Aquino’s incompetence, however, does not limit itself to being a cause of death for people.
He forced General Bangit to resign as Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of staff just for being an appointee of his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, and thus killed any chance of affording the AFP any shred of dignity and respect, despite the job that Bangit did to keep them apolitical during the last May 2010 elections.
BS Aquino’s incompetence also is the cause of death of the idea of three (3) co-equal branches of government. BS Aquino is no statesman; his lack of charisma, lack of any political track record, and lack of political savvy do not allow him to deal with others who do not agree with him or whom he does not have an undue advantage over. His alleged herding of 188 congressmen into signing the impeachment complaint against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and his use of the pork barrel as a political tool to get what he wants ensures that Congress, and most likely the Senate, are subordinate to him.
What about the Supreme Court? After the impeachment, Maria Lourdes Sereno was sworn in as Chief Justice. As she is one of the dissenting opinions in the previous ruling on Hacienda Luisita, before Corona’s trial ended, she may most likely reverse it to make it “more favorable” to the Cojuangco clan. Whoopee.
With the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill languishing in Congress, BS Aquino has effectively killed any semblance of government being more transparent about its wheelings and dealings. Never mind that this was a priority of his while he was still campaigning as president back then.
Maybe at this point, the groups against the Reproductive Health Law (RA 10368) would like to jump on the bandwagon, as they have termed BS Aquino’s support for it the promotion of a “culture of death”. While I personally don’t agree with that pronouncement, it is my personal take that what his support for the RH Law has killed is any ethic of self-responsibility that people should be having for their own families. “Go ahead and do it ’till you keel over; the state will support you!”
Last but not the least on this non-exhaustive list, BS Aquino’s incompetence in handling the Sabah incident has killed any idea that he is for unity among the Filipinos. Whether he has realized it or not, more and more people have grown dissatisfied with him due to his handling of this incident alone. In BS Aquino’s mind the Filipino people that exist are only those who support him and those who sing praises to him. His critics, people whom he doesn’t like, and people who have found themselves on the opposite side of any stance he takes, don’t exist. He keeps reducing complex situations into a “we-versus-they” setup, and he continuously picks fights where there should not be any, or where there aren’t any.
But maybe, just maybe, he’s uniting the people of the Philippines in ascertaining him as the root cause of most of their problems. Not that it’s right all of the time. What his critics are hoping that BS Aquino will “kill” next is the illusion being served up to his Noytards that he was the right man for the job.
Defenders of BS Aquino will be quick to the draw that we are nitpicking and arbitrarily assigning the blame to their idol, when other people are also to blame. Arroyo is supposedly to blame for the Mendoza hostage incident and even this Sabah incident. The citizens in CDO and Compostela Valley are supposedly to blame for their own misfortunes. Anybody who is an ally of Arroyo’s is supposedly to blame for his/her fate.
Here’s one simple reply to all that:
Is Noynoy Aquino the President of the Philippines or not?
If he is, then he should have been prepared to take ALL responsibility for any mistake of his government. The buck stops with me – unfortunately this is one of the statements you will never hear from BS Aquino’s mouth. No ethic of accountability and self-responsibility, BS Aquino not only represents the Pinoys to a tee, he is THE quintessential Pinoy.
Too bad BS Aquino does not know the meaning of command responsibility. The weakness of his character will not permit him to practice it:
On the basis of the text of Protocol I the ICRC Commentary identified three conditions for command responsibility:
(i) the person to be held responsible must be the superior of the person or persons committing the breach of the convention;
(ii) the superior must have known or had information which should have enabled him to conclude that a breach was being committed or was going to be committed; and
(iii) the superior did not take all feasible measures within his powers to prevent the breach.
Source: Link
Too bad incompetence itself is not an impeachable crime. But maybe, just maybe, BS Aquino’s recent bungling of what started out as a manageable situation could kill that, too.
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
Great litany of the guy’s blunders. Too bad the cost is in blood. Nice for him that he can pretend the bill does not exist. Not nice for the rest of us. 3 1/2 more years folks.
Just get him impeached; he’ll be out by end of this year.
dark forces are gathering- but not that quickly.
like comedians, its all aboit timing.
Given the influence the president has over Congress and the Supreme Court, it’s unlikely you can get the numbers to impeach.
Very astute observation. I’m also very tired of the people making excuses for him. They will say PNOY has more important problems to solve than appease a greedy Sultan (which btw is an unfair judgement). They go far as to accuse GMA of being behind all of this. As long as there are still people allowing him to be mediocre and protects him, he will always get away for being mediocre.
When GMA was president, we hear nothing but naysayers against her, that she’s corrupt, etc…but look at the things she did DESPITE of them. There wasn’t a lot of people who made excuses for GMA then. She had no reason to slack off because other people are making excuses for her, and even if there were…she’s too COMPETENT to slack off…:)
Right about now, there are a lot of people with buyer’s remorse wishing for a return of Gloria Arroyo’s workaholic ethic.
It’s funny how people used to blame GMA for EVERTHING that’s wrong in the Philippines even though the Philippines has been having problems before she got into office.
My friends from Cebu said that GMA has plenty of projects in Cebu and that’s the reason why she got so many votes. She has built schools in Bicol if I can remember. She did a lot of projects like building bridges.
I don’t really get the hate she’s been getting. Ever since I was in high school, people were bashing Gloria but then one of my classmates said “Sinong maganda papalit sa kanya?” At least she’s competent and smart compared to Erap. They hate her because she cheated on the elections but I think it’s for the better because the Philippines would be in a more screwed state than it already is if FPJ won as the president.
I used to think it was created by the propaganda machine of the Aquinos out simple self preservation and a desire for revenge because the Supreme Court’s decision to implement CARP at Hacienda Luisita. That, coupled with the jealousy of rival politicians — such as the Cayetanos — over not being able to squeeze more money out of the alleged Arroyo malfeasance.
Now I’m thinking it isn’t just gullibility that leads a significant portion of the general public to vilify Gloria Arroyo over, say, Erap Estrada or Enrile. I’m leaning towards the idea that Gloria Arroyo is hated because she is a WOMAN who played the same game as her male contemporaries and (allegedly) became successful at it.
Jane, I make the case that voting for Noynoy was the same as voting FPJ . Read my 18 Things blog from last week. It links to something I did pre election on Noynoy being an FPJ clone .
But FPGMA was not proven to have cheated despite all the cards that the Aquino government stacked against her : they manufactured evidence, they buy witnesses, they threaten witnesses, they peddle unfavorable propaganda against her in their controlled tri- media, they support their black propaganda with their false surveys courtesy of their owned survey stations… in fact, they used every trick in the book against her but until now, they can’t prove her guilt.. the only way for the government to wiggle out of this shameful situation is the death of the former president… that maybe the reason why they do not want her to seek medical treatment abroad despite her doctors recommendation..
A good summation of incompetence and the price to be paid for bad leadership.
And i suspect that the examples cited represent the visible tip of the iceberg with a large percentage hidden, in less obvious ways
E.G.
Poverty and suicide
Lack of access to medicines/healthcare
Political murders
Farmers disappearing, still, in hacienda luisita
Atimonan massacre – ochoa’s grubby hands stamped all over it.
Increase in crime/murder in an increasingly lawless country.
P-noy, who everyone knows lacks any human empathy or social integration , simply continues to show his disregard for human life. He may not be on the scale of middle eastern dictators but the characteristics are there, and he certainly has nothing in common with progressive western democratic leaders and is the last person to lead by example (lies, cheating, corruption of kkk etc ) – which may explain why they tolerate him at best, knowing his time is limited.
Few leaders combine such stupidity, laziness, self-interest,cowardice, and now treason. Just like his grandfather.
A liability to the country.
A clear and present danger.
Incompetence= Injuries or Death. From The Daily Tribune the truth about what is happening in Sabha. Ethnic cleansing has already begun.
http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/item/11314-ethnic-cleansing-in-sabah.html
http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/item/11316-a-travesty.html
It’s ironic that we characterize the Malaysians’ acts a campaign of ethnic cleansing when the policies in Mindanao of successive Philippine governments has been called institutionalized discrimination against Muslims by a Catholic majority.
There is also Marcos’ ill advised “Operation Merdeka” which, if it actually had been put into motion, would have resulted in “ethnic cleansing” to effect the annexation of Sabah.
Please enlighten me on this, as I see an inconsistency. What exactly is the mission of Operation Merdeka? If it’s ethnic cleansing as you would allege, who will be slaughtered? Was it the Tausug in Sabah?
What I know is that Operation Merdeka failed because the operatives refused to kill their fellow Tausug, and they were subsequently massacred to cover this up. But it doesn’t make sense to reduce the tribe that may side with the Philippines in a bid to get Sabah.
Esmail Kiram was Sultan of Sulu from 1950 to 1974.
On 12 September 1962, the sultanate’s authority and sovereignty was officially transferred to the Philippines through a written instrument signed by the Sultan and Foreign Affairs Secretary Emmanuel Pelaez. Kiram thus gave up the Sulu sultanate’s sovereign rights to Sabah to the government, but retained proprietary rights over the same.
However, the Sultan’s council of advisers passed a resolution stating that in the event the Philippine government fails or refuses to protect its claim, the Sultanate of Sulu reserves the right to prosecute its claim over Sabah, in whatever manner it can think of. The Kiram family lawyer, Ulka Ulama, and former Senator Santanina Rasul have documents that bear this out. This means that even if the Philippines loses sovereign rights over Sabah, we still have proprietary rights, through the heirs of the Sultan, who personally owned Sabah.
During the term of President Diosdado Macapagal, the government in 1962 filed a claim over Sabah with the United Nations. A Sabah Division was even created in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
President Marcos on the other hand, decided on a different approach. Parallel to the legal case, he conceptualized “Operation Merkada” — a destabilization program tasked with fomenting dissent among Sabah’s non-Malay ethnic groups, namely the Tausug and Sama, two groups closely aligned ethnically and culturally with Filipinos. To this end, young Muslims were recruited and trained on Corregidor in late 1967. The scenario: the recruits would be deployed in the region and initiate a conflict. The Philippines could then come in and take Sabah by force, to “protect” the thousands of Tausugs who lived there from a hostile force and incite them to secede and join the Philippines. Essentially it would have pit the Tausug and Sama against the Malays and other ethnic groups in the region.
The plan went awry when the recruits mutinied upon realizing that the plan would mean not only fighting their brother Muslims in Sabah, but also possibly killing their own Tausug and Sama relatives living there to initiate the conflict. The events culminated in the now infamous “Jabidah Massacre” of 18 March 1968.
The blame games continues. From the Manila Standard:
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/2013/03/06/covering-up-his-failures/
BS Aquino’s incompetence also reflects how his advisers are all inexperience in a critical situation and how inconsistent, biased and greed on powers bestowed to them, in exchange of their dignity.
kris aquino normally acts as the bait for senators in times of crisis
give her away as a wife of the sultan.
it would at the very least improve the quality of tv.
enjoyed this article…bs is a walking, coughing hazard.
You elected an incompetent man, as your President. He is not only incompetent; but a coward, lazy man ,and is taking medications for Depression. It’s your fault, Dude…
I really think that it’s the people who voted for Noynoy’s fault why he’s the president in the first place. He wouldn’t be the president if it weren’t for the people who voted for him in first place and now they regret it. Voters don’t know how to take responsibilities for their own actions. Even I have enough common sense not to vote for this guy because he’s not smart and doesn’t know a thing about running a country.
“adversity brings out the best or the worst in a person…” alas, it’s the latter that defines the character of our president. There’s not much to expect – either he will be grinning silly or he will be blurting out non-sense and that’s it.
This President lacks statemanship. He is a bullheaded SOB. He listens to one.
Kahit sino pang umupong presidente di kayo mawawalang ng ipipintas. Lahat sinisisi nyo sa presidente…
It all comes back to us. It does matter if the PCOS machine was allegedly program to make him win, the truth is the majority voted him. We only have ourselves to blame with all the shit he did and all lives lost during his tenure as the president. I hope that all of us have learned our lesson. Before I forget, BS Aquino has been undermining the judiciary from day one of his presidency.