A rude awakening for BS Aquino and Filipinos

The following statement will not come as a surprise to the critics of the current Philippine President, Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III:

Natutulog nanaman sa pansitan si Noynoy.

For those who don’t understand Filipino/Tagalog, the statement “natutulog sa pansitan” is used to refer to someone who is “caught sleeping on the job”, “caught with one’s pants down”, or someone out of touch with reality.

So apparently BS Aquino is surprised at his critics’ “lack of conscience and ethics”. This he confided in an “exclusive” interview with a “leading” news organization that serves as his official mouthpiece. Actually, his criticism of local media who don’t agree with him is nothing new. He’s been doing nothing but complain about bad news for a long time. Tourists don’t supposedly come to the country because of all the negative news around. Plus, it seems PNoy favors foreign media outlets for “being more concerned” about Philippine welfare.

What else did he say? One of the biggest adjustments he has had to make when he assumed the presidency is the lack of breaks. What an answer! Count on BS Aquino to not think things through, as usual. After all, he was just goaded into running for the presidency. Plus, it doesn’t seem to have sunk in yet with him that the presidency of a country is not just an ordinary 9-to-5 job. That particular position in government has sucked the life out of many who have served in it, and it is one that demands complete and undivided attention.

No, Mr. President, you don’t get breaks when you have to run a country, and you especially don’t get one when you’ve been doing nothing productive. No Mr. President, you don’t have a right to regard your critics as lacking in ethics and conscience when you haven’t done much to address, much less allay their concerns. And definitely NO, Mr. President, you don’t have a right to keep vilifying your predecessor and anyone else associated with her two years into your term, where by that time you should already be standing on your own two feet.

It’s time to wake up. We’ve been wandering in the land of Nod, Noynoyland, for far too long. Don’t be surprised if the president doesn’t want to wake up from his slumber yet, though. After all, in Noynoyland, everybody agrees with the king, and he can do no wrong. Everyday the people sing praises to him, and he not only rules the kingdom, he IS the kingdom. Institutions be damned; there are only two rules.

Rule number one: the king is always right.
Rule number two: when in doubt, refer to rule number one.

Failure to abide by these two rules results in banishment, or worse, death by incessant tantrum by the king. In addition, you must not mention nor be associated with the previous ruler. Otherwise, you have committed a crime whether you have realized it or not.

I think a line from a Metallica song is in order:

Where’s your crown, King Nothing?

That’s it! The perfect title for PNoy: King Nothing. This matches perfectly with Edwin Lacierda’s statement that what PNoy says is what he does. Absolutely nothing, tangible or measurable, that is.

Speaking of stories involving characters who sleep, there are two (2) that come to mind: Sleeping Beauty and Rip van Winkle.

I guess we are able to say that Sleeping Beauty represents BS Aquino, except that he’s actually a beast. Imagine former president Gloria Arroyo as Maleficent, and Aquino’s three fairies Flora (Lacierda), Fauna (Valte), and Merriweather (Ochoa) keeping the hero/ine safe from harm (read:criticism) while waiting for Prince Charming to arrive. By the way, BS Aquino pricked his finger on the spindle of the presidency, thus he is cursed to sleep for 100 years. I don’t know who Prince Charming represents in real life, but would any sane-minded prince want to kiss THAT? Ok fine, Mar Roxas is probably Noynoy’s Prince Charming.

We can also assert that BS Aquino is like Rip van Winkle, because just as Rip retreated to the mountains to escape his wife’s nagging, Noynoy wanders to his other places to escape the nagging of his critics. He falls asleep in Malacañang and wakes up a few years later, and expects things to still be the same. However, Rip had the fortune of sleeping through the American Revolution; Noynoy does not have the luxury of sleeping through the country’s problems while he is in the office of the President. Perhaps he needs a rude awakening.

BS Aquino’s State of the Nation Address for 2012 should have been an indicator of whether PNoy has indeed woken up and gotten to work. However, he remained true to form: PNoy couldn’t stop blaming the previous administration for the “problems” he faced coming in. for one. He continued to make motherhood statements, and he trumpeted projects started by the previous administration as his own. As I have said in a previous write-up, this pony is a one-trick PNoy. His list of “accomplishments” leaves much to be desired because we can’t see the results. Worse, he left out certain issues that the people, his boss, have a right to know about, such as the FOI, constitutional reform, a more detailed take on the RH Bill, and a road map for the next three (3) years and beyond.

We, the Filipino people, should wake up; no amount of hoping that things will get better will do the trick. No amount of convincing yourselves that PNoy is the man for the job will ever be the truth. He just isn’t. If he has managed to throw BS at us for three (3) straight years, then he sure as hell will have no trouble throwing the same BS at us for the remaining three.

A measly kiss from Prince Charming isn’t going to wake us up from our slumber of complacency and mediocrity. As one blogger has so put it, Pinoys and PNoy deserve a good swift kick to the rear end to realize that they have much left to do. That may not be enough, though. I propose a sledgehammer, to the head.

It is disconcerting, to say the least, to be the only sloth in a jungle full of tigers, whether sleeping or awake.

[Photo courtesy GMA News.]