No doubt that many of you have heard of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, one of Aesop’s fables. A shepherd boy repeatedly tricks villagers nearby into thinking that wolves are attacking his flock. When the wolves do come along, he cries for help once again, but the villagers do not believe him anymore. Thus, the wolves eat his sheep.
Moral of the story: “This shows how liars are rewarded; even if they tell the truth, no one believes them.”
Now, on the basis of his parents’ name and his pedigree, then presidential candidate Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III had been able to convince the electorate that he could be trusted. I’m guessing that even those who didn’t vote for him back in 2010 wanted to trust him when he became the official winner in that year’s presidential elections, though they were watching him closely. The Philippines, after all, prides itself in being a “democracy”; thus the decision of the majority must be respected, whatever it may turn out to be.
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When we define what it means for BS Aquino to be trusted, it means that he would be competent and qualified to lead a nation of 100 million (and counting). He would make decisions for the greatest good of the Filipino people. He would put the national interest above his clan’s own. He would finally be the one to make sure that government operates more efficiently and effectively than it had in the past.
It did not take long for BS Aquino to show that he couldn’t be trusted with the highest government post, though.
Remember the Luneta hostage situation in August 2010? Eight (8) Hong Kong tourists ended up dead because of the failure of several Philippine institutions: the Philippine Media, the Philippine National Police, and the local and national governments. And BS Aquino was nowhere to take command responsibility at that time. Three years later, he still hasn’t.
Maybe dealing with hostage situations wasn’t yet one of BS Aquino’s government’s strong points at that time. Let’s see now, what if his government’s strength then actually lies in responding to natural calamities? After all, the Philippines does get hit by 20-odd typhoons a year, with the occasional armed conflict and earthquake thrown in for good measure. Surely, BS Aquino’s government must be good at disaster management, right?
2011, typhoon Sendong (Washi) came. Typhoon Sendong killed at least 1,500. Typhoon Sendong left. Unfortunately, the calamity response was mismanaged. Malacañang did admit their excessive pre-occupation with former president Gloria Arroyo, though, so let’s give them brownie points for that.
2012, typhoon Pablo (Bopha) came. Another 1,000 or so dead. Another mismanaged calamity response. And the government patted itself on the back prematurely for its supposed “preparedness”.
Disaster response? Nope, looks like it didn’t take long for BS Aquino’s government to show their incompetence in that field either.
How about respect for the rule of law? How about, let’s take him up on his promise to fight corruption? Let’s see how he did there:
The Supreme Court implements a TRO on the travel ban that would have prevented former president Gloria Arroyo from getting treatment for her health condition abroad. What did BS Aquino’s Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima do? Through her, his government defied the SC order and arrested her anyway, even without charges being brought forth at that time.
Former Chief Justice Renato Corona was also a target of BS Aquino’s “anti-corruption” drive, all because he was appointed by Arroyo, never mind that the Judicial Bar Council (JBC) had been ok with it. BS Aquino wanted him impeached. He even resorted to using pork barrel (allegedly, of course), the ultimate device for government corruption here in the Philippines, to convince 188 congressmen to “see things his way”. Ultimately, Corona was impeached, but BS Aquino’s government trampled on his constitutional rights to do so.
And the sad part about all this is that the Filipino people, at that time, didn’t seem to give much of a sh*t!
Hey, that’s just the first two years of his term, up to 2012. And he’s been racking up the baseball strikes and errors while only half the game is over!
2013 was “eventful”, to say the least, and at the start of it, BS Aquino had a lot of opportunities to improve the standing of his government in his critics eyes. By the way, it was an election year.
Leopards don’t change their spots. 50-year old boys still cry wolf.
March 2013 – BS Aquino’s government left the men of the sultan, recently-deceased Jamalul Kiram III, to die at the hands of the Malaysians. Nobody’s saying that the troops of the Sulu sultanate did the right thing; why it eventually turned out the way it did (into one big mess, for short) was because BS Aquino did not want to listen to what Kiram had to say about the Philippine claim to Sabah. BS Aquino instead was more concerned about campaigning for his Liberal Party (LP) senatorial bets, and making sure the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (which Malaysia played a big part in, by the way), would come to fruition. The actions of Kiram and his men, however, doused cold water on the latter.
August 2013 – around that time a habagat hit Metro Manila. Same thing also happened in August of 2012. The response was the same, however: no official word from his government several days after the storm hit. In 2012, he came out to one site with his senatorial bets, which reeked of epal. In 2013, he defended his delayed appearance by claiming that he was coordinating with his cabinet secretaries.
September 2013 – the Zamboanga situation broke out. We all know how that went. Noynoy went down there to personally oversee the operations, but it looks like it didn’t speed up the resolution one bit, did it?
October 2013 – an earthquake affected Bohol and Cebu and other nearby areas. Yes, BS Aquino went to the site, but what critics consider insensitive was that he didn’t cancel his trip to Korea despite the need for leadership during the crisis management. No one could stop BS Aquino, allegedly because one of the highlights of that trip was for him to receive recognition on behalf of his father, Ninoy Aquino, who covered the Korean War in the 1950’s as a correspondent for the Manila Times.
November 2013 – Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). Enough said. BS Aquino started off on the wrong foot by blaming officials of the hardest hit area, Leyte, Tacloban city in particular, for the lack of response. All despite the fact that they were among the victims too, and despite the realization that nothing could have prepared Leyte for the strength of that storm. Plus, he and his government officials were desperate to project an image to the rest of the world that they had the situation under control, even if reports from foreign correspondents on the ground had made it glaringly obvious that that wasn’t true.
By the way, does anyone remember Noynoy Aquino’ telecast at the end of October?
“I am not a thief.” That was his way of doing cover-my-ass for the scandal with the pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that broke out. Unfortunately, when you do nothing or are powerless to stop thievery in your own backyard, hardly anyone will believe you when you say you are not a thief, or complicit to it. You’re any one of three things: incompetent, indifferent, or blind.
Back to the Typhoon Yolanda situation. BS Aquino’s government is now accused of padding the death count, keeping foreign donations to themselves, and using the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Diskwento Caravan to sell relief goods to the typhoon victims.
The first item isn’t so surprising, given that BS Aquino was so concerned about there being zero casualties.
For the second item, there were quite a few who volunteered to repack goods for the operations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) who also told their stories about DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman’s alleged belief that foreign donations were too good for the victims, thus they be given local sardines instead. Stories and reports persist; make of that what you will.
The DTI Secretary Greg Domingo has an official statement regarding the Diskwento Caravan. Even if he is telling the truth, that the Diskwento Caravan isn’t being used to sell relief goods to the victims, it’s hard to believe him, or any government official in BS Aquino’s government, for that matter, because it has been crying wolf ever since.
***
There you have it. BS Aquino and his government had used all up all their “trust credits” with the Filipino people early on. BS Aquino has shown so far that he is not above telling lies just to keep his image squeaky clean, or because he has a perverse sense of self-righteousness. The credibility that BS Aquino’s government has with the Filipino people is now at an all-time low; he and his government have been consistent in being under-performing and/or non-performing.
That’s what the Philippines gets for following a man who cannot lead, as a wise man once said. It’s just sad that Filipinos had to fall off a cliff before they could finally learn just how much their naivety and collective dysfunction would eventually come back to bite them in the ass.
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
In lieu of this, one question sticks in my mind: What happens next? I mean, not only are even more Filipinos tired of the government’s bull, the whole world pretty much knows the current government isn’t even trying to do its job, but it’s doubtful that even something like that will stop them from doing what they’re doing. So what happens then? Do we brave the rest of Noynoy’s term and hope that the masa have learned their lesson, which is very unlikely? Or do we wait for some big thing that’ll boot Noynoy out of office, like an ironic People Power?
A man will not grow wise overnight. Because, he is given many responsibilities. “Trust, but verify”, stated, an old Russian proverb. We believe what politicians tell us, without really verifying their credibility. Mr. Aquino cannot perform, and produce results. He had bitten more than he can chew. The task of being President of a 98 million Filipinos is too much for him. It’s like a weight lifter , who can only lift up 100 Kg. He aspired to carry 500 kg. ; he campaigned and talked about being able to lift that weight. Now , we see the results…FAILURES!!!
On your analogy. The guy was not even athlete yet he convinced the country he was going to lift a ton or win the decathlon. The guy has no history of winning. Yet he is adored by a fair cross session of the country. Across several economic classes. Boggles my mind how gullible we are.
I wonder how would the Pro-Aquino people defend their president when all we see are failures from his present administration?
No amount of sugar-coating can cover Aquino’s incompetency. Being unapologetic regarding the hostage crisis last 2010 is a sure-sign of being an immature, self-centered prick.
They’ll probably say something like:
“Why are you guys attacking our president?
Blah blah blah tuwid na daan,
blah blah blah kasalanan ito ni gloria,
blah blah blah, bayaran kayo ni corona at ni gloria, blah blah blah, inggit lang kayo” etc.
Those are the usual spiels those malacanang c0cksuckers use.
I forgot to mention that they’ll use multiple names here just to show that there are a lot of them when clearly its just the same stupid shmuck trolling here.
Yeah, despite the multiple accounts…those people say the same piece over and over, “parang sirang plaka.”
Typical loyalists, they all want to hear only good things about their president but when faced with the truth, they cower and bark like askals. It’s no wonder this country is still f’ked up.
That’s the only way they think they can handle things but it’s already clear that the end is near for their president.
everything you’ll throw at ’em, they’ll come back with “kayo na lang kaya maging presidente” rebuttal, followed with “kayo na ang magaling” satire attempt
Unfortunately for them, it only makes them look more and more butthurt since they can’t say anything else.
@Johnny Derp: Well, yes. The end is near for Noy as President, unless they change the law to allow incumbents to run for reelection.
We should probably start preparing for the era of Binay or Roxas. Yuck.
One way, perhaps, the best way for me right now is to somehow, “nudge” the masa to change their whole perspective towards the Philippine government, sharing articles from this site and others like it. Suggest, rather than slam (because they don’t like being told) to look at things in some other light. It isn’t much, but hopefully come next election, common sense for the filipino voter will prevail, rather than idiocy.
While we are on the discussion of the upcoming elections, can the LGUs educate the masses on responsible and intelligent voting instead?
Because I feel that most of us will be voting for the wrong person for the right job once again…
This is a good solution, really. Give people the complete info so they can better make an informed choice as to what prospective candidates or laws are coming down the pipeline.
The problem – and I am much more pessimistic about this – is whether there ARE candidates that can fit the requirements of being able to help facilitate positive change. Eh kung lahat ng choices ay pangit, paano na?
The era of Binay is more likely to occur in the future. When that happens, I hope I have the resources to migrate to London immediately.
Those politician only target the poor when campaigning because majority of the population are poor people. poor people who do not have enough information or do not have the time and resources to know the truth about who they vote, this is the biggest flaw of democracy here in the philippines, even if you don’t have a background in politics, just go and tell empty promises at the poor people and you will be elected, as simple as that, even if we the people in the middle and the higher class do vote wisely, our votes are wasted because even if the population of the middle and the rich class gets combined, we are still out matched by the poor, and this is what the corrupt politicians exploit, give the poor what they need (which is money) and they will do what you want.
Our mother land will never be better if we still believe in democracy. Although there is still chance which is to not let the poor to vote, this will be evaluated by a certain amount of tax you pay to be eligible to vote, this may seem unfair to the poor people but it is always them who are easily swayed by the corrupt politicians. The poor votes for the corrupt, the corrupt pockets the “kaban ng bayan”, more poor people creates more people and the government do nothing about it because they only see their own interests, the vicious cycle won’t stop!
Then I suggest that a person’s vote should have a multiplier when counted depending maybe on the amount of income tax or IQ, or occupation, those kind of things. So your vote would actually count more than 1 vote if you are a middle income earner and less than 1 vote if you are a just a tambay sa kanto.
Hahaha, I wish it would become a reality. Then, all the “unfit” candidates would be wiped out of the political scene.
This would need fine-tuning.
As it is, if you or I run into circumstances which reduce our income (retirement, disability, personal bankruptcy), magiging “depreciated” yung boto natin.
Definitely should have reform of the electoral system, though.
Denying the poor the right to vote is a solution worse than the problem. It will be an excellent recipe for a bloody revolution. Instigating class struggle will become easy. “Look what the ruling class is doing to us,lets kill them all and establish the dictatorship of the proletartiat!
I did not say the poor cannot vote. I am just suggesting a certain weight for votes depending on some categories.
This should also be motivational, since if you want a louder voice then you just have to strive for it.
mas mainam na cguro kong may qualification ng sinusunod ang mga kakandidato sa pagka Presidente dapat Law graduate at top notcher ng bar exam of course back ground ng politics, gnun din sa mga Senador at Congressman khit di top noptcher at least law graduate with background in politics din, pra khit mga botante from poor to poorer and not well informed cgurado na ang iboboto may alam sa pamamalakad ng bansa nangyari sa atin ngyon by popularity kaya tuloy katawa tawa namumuno ng bansa natin …
If memory serves me right, nung time ni makoy, meron: hindi ka puede maging presidente pag hindi ka pa naging senador….hindi ka puede maging senador kung hindi pa naging congressman…and so on…
Yes, that used to be true in the past. Suddenly, there are a lot of people who wish to become president even if they do not have the qualifications to be one. Remember Eddie Gil?
Right! but remember, the next person who sat after makoy was an “Aquino”, The current constitution we have was created to give give more power to their family, their affiliates and whoever sits at the throne.
Let’s give credit to the person who was actually smart enough (on this argument only) to push through a ConCon! unfortunately our politicians who are already in seat knew what would happen to them once the constitution was revised so it didn’t pushed through (this happened at the same time Ping was opposing PDAF).
I suggest, kapag legislator may alam sa batas or lawyer.
Pero kapag presidential, mayoral at governatorial ay public admistration experience or similar track record.
A mayor or a governor in the US is qualified to run for a presidential position. Maybe it is more practical to know if he has public administrative skills.
i am from leyte (currently in cebu working). Our branch office was also in leyte. 3 Hours before the winds picked up i was watching the LGU employees of tacloban (including my elder sister) go back and forth to the residents in our barangay forcing them to evacuate due to the possibility of high winds. Confident as we are we stayed at home thinking that the concrete wall wont crumble under the storm. An hour or two passed and see water came rushing in our house. To sum up my story i lost both parents (i watched as my mom drowned) and my nephew when we were washed out of our home. Then PNoy came into the city blaming the LGU for not doing their part. Having their (and by their i mean mar “bullshit” roxas) pictures taken that they were giving away relief goods. People of the local government were giving relief goods in the RTR plaza and as soon as PNoy arrives it stopped, then they had a little photo session then leaves right after. V&G Subdivision, please were in line for almost 3 hours waiting for the relief goods giveaway by GMA Kapuso Foundation. They didn’t start giving it until Mel Tiangco’s show went live, and the staff even said the people in line “Smile kayo pag nabigyan ha (smile when the relief goods are given to you)”. They are trying to cover up the total death count of the typhoon to salvage what little image they have. The LGU of tacloban would go about giving help to people, but the national politicians won’t even step outside their rooms without media coverage. Nobody is to blame for what had happen, no one could predict the waters to rise. In Palo Leyte a newly erected gym (was used for evacuation by the people in palo) by Mr. Icot Petilia caved in and news of people dying or of its destruction didn’t even make the news. Why? is it because the Romualdez family is not one of Pnoy’s political allies? I have kept my mouth shut. I also dont care if my grammar sucks. I just wanted to let off some steam. and thanks to this article and its writer for understanding how we taclobanons/leytenios feel
First, I’m sorry for your loss.
Second, if politicians really want to help their people, there’s no need for cameras, the blame-game or other bullcrap – just help and be done with it. I find it appalling that even the government has interest in these relief goods for them to exploit and to earn money while the victims are left to rot and die.
Add to that how BS Aquino used the pork barrel to push the approval of the RH Bill. That was just P280 million for EACH congressman, btw. He’s so bad at keeping his promises even if it’s Christmas. 😛 He promised not to sign the RH Bill into law until after Christmas but signed it in secret on December 21, 2012. If you’re not doing anything bad, why do you need to hide it?
Parang namang si Gloria ay hindi nagbabayad ng P500k sa mga Congresista para di ma-impeach at nagho-hold ng Pork Barrel sa mga Congresista at Mayor na hindi nasuporta sa kanya..
Mas dapat siguro pre-requisite at hindi qualification. Bago maka-takbo bilang Presidente dapat nakapaglingkod muna bilang Mayor. Bago makatakbo ng Congresista/Senator dapat nakapaglingkod muna bilang Councilor. Hindi ibig sabihin na hindi ka nakapag-aral ay wala ka ng kakayahang mamuno..
Huh? Edukasyon nga ang pinakamahalaga sa pagiging pinuno e. Iyon ang magiging foundation nya para maka-ako siya ng responsibilidad at makagawa ng batas.
Halimbawa na lang: Between Miriam Defensor-Santiago at Lito Lapid…kay Miriam na lang ako, dahil nakatapos siya ng pag-aaral kaya may kaalaman siya sa batas. Si Lito naman kaya siya nananalo mula Mayor hanggang Senator ay dahil aktor siya.
Kung babale-walain mo lang ang edukasyon, magiging bansa tayo ng mga uto-uto…ay oo nga pala, nangyayari na nga pala iyon ngayon.
What about January 16th 2013. 8 Filipinos killed by terrorists in Algeria, the police in every other affected country are investigating this crime. Philippines – “What crime?”
8 families who have lost the breadwinner have been denied compensation by their employers and have no income and NO SUPPORT OR INTEREST FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT!
The government would rather busy themselves with raising funds for a convicted filipino abroad, complete with press releases.
i never believed in pnoy ever. imo, he was just riding on the coattails of his parents’ popularity with the masses. he never had anything to show for despite being in politics for a long time.. this is why i strongly support miriam’s proposal to have only taxpayers vote during elections. partisan politics. what’sthe percentage of the people whose not earning their keep yet filing their votes? these are the people whose willing to sell their votes to earn what? 300? 500? 1000? at the expense of the taxpayers wasted taxes.. i dont think im makjng sense.. but i hope u get my drift.. 😉
I think for me, the country should have a new form of government. Tanggalin na natin ang democracy because it just makes the country worse. Siguro noong napatalsik si Marcos, democracy was the most suitable form of governemnt that time, but now we need a new form of governemnt. One that would help the people realise that having the freedom to choose your leaders will not change the country’s economic stand in the present time. Parang noong sinaunang panahon lang yan. People from the past used religion to control the people and somehow shaped the country, but at some point in time, religion had to be changed to a different form of governemnt to cope to the people’s needs and this needs to be continued for the country to adapt to the changes in their society. Sorry if you guys think that my logic and reasoning is wrong. I just want to express my thoughts, also sorry for my wrong grammar.
Dinky WOW pure evil in action. Funny how you said repacks were marked Fragile only but people are reporting they say DSWD on their relief of local sardines…
http://t.co/G3SdCEKz1D