The mobbing of Budget Secretary Butch Abad by angry students from the University of the Philippines (UP) is a sign that the system in the Philippines has broken down. The fact that a large group of Filipinos did not hesitate to verbally abuse a public official and were even prepared to physically assault him shows that there are people who are increasingly getting frustrated at the lack of attention to their complaints. This incident is unprecedented and could be a prelude to anarchy.
Chaos at UP Diliman around Abad: A sign of things to come?
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Another Malacanang spokesperson, Abigail Valte reiterated “every citizen is free to express his opinion on any matter. However, it is different when an opinion is expressed with a view to violence or threats. The latter should have no place in our society.”
What they are saying is true. Of course, a peaceful dialogue is always preferable to violence and shouting matches. However, coming from Malacanang, the suggestion seems too phoney. It is very convenient for the President and his minions to hide behind the façade of “civility” now that they are under attack but when did they ever listen to the real voice of the people anyway? They only listen to their allies and the people who praise them.
In fact, President BS Aquino refers to his critics as those who are against him. He has this narrow-minded view that those who do not agree with him are allied with his political enemies. His attitude has divided the sentiments of the people.
His appalling treatment of his critics was evident while he was delivering his Fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA). Thousands of protesters went out into the streets calling for accountability on the use of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and Abad’s resignation. However, President BS Aquino was not even moved to invite the protesters to a “peaceful dialogue”. He showed no concern for the protesters while they were being water cannoned and simply dismissed their grievances. He also mocked them by praising Abad and by declaring his continued trust in him.
President BS Aquino: He thinks his critics are ‘against’ him.
Like the President, some people also expressed their disappointment at the way the students behaved. They said that they expected more from students who represent the country’s premier state university. But the truth is, it would be far more disappointing if the country’s “elite” students just stood back and allowed the country’s politicians to get away with their crimes.
The students have probably had enough of the lies and deceit of the government. They realized that the executive and his allies in Congress have made a mockery of the country’s institutions and that any attempts to hold the President accountable for his transgressions will only reach a dead end. The speed with which the impeachment cases against President BS Aquino were dismissed by his allies in the Justice Committee is proof of this.
As usual, President BS Aquino and his minions are quick to act like victims after Abad’s mobbing incident at the UP Diliman. But the students’ behavior was a natural reaction to the way the President has been disrespecting the rule of law and undermining the members of the Supreme Court after their unfavorable ruling on the DAP.
A lot of Filipinos do understand and even applaud the way the students heckled and manhandled Secretary Abad. Some even think he should have been thrown into the garbage bin. They say he has a lot of nerve acting like he hasn’t done anything wrong. He has yet to provide details of where the funds disbursed through his spending program went. Abad obviously gets his overconfidence from the President’s trust and undying support. There are even talks that Abad has got the goods on the President and has him by the balls.
It was President BS Aquino himself who inadvertently admitted what a master manipulator Abad is in a speech during 75th anniversary of the Department of Budget and Management on April 25, 2011. The President recalled how, at the height of the campaign for the 2010 Presidential Election, Abad was the one who came up with the idea of creating a buzz around the then candidate Noynoy by fooling the public into believing that he was going out with a famous singer:
Butch has been my campaign manager on two occasions already. To show you how creative he is… before, when I was in the opposition and without money, he thought up a way to make me known to the people. What he did was, there was this famous singer-actress who made it possible for me to be in the newspapers for about eight months. I was surprised, because I had met this woman only once and Butch Abad made it appear like I attended all her concerts and that we had a thing going. For eight months, that story ran, and I was wondering how a story with nothing to it could run that long. Later I learned that friends of Butch Abad had been sending the woman flowers, which she always accepted. And every time flowers were sent, the story about our affair kept going even if nothing really happened.
“I said, Butch, you’re so good at inventing fiction, you should have been a writer.”
So now we know that Senator Noynoy only pretended to be romantically involved with a woman to make himself look interesting during the campaign. It seems President BS Aquino owes Abad big time. No wonder he cannot ask Abad to step down. We can already predict a bad end to a bad situation.
Secretary Butch Abad should resign out of respect for Filipinos’ sense of justice.
Filipinos are likewise asking for the head of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman to roll for her incompetence in handling of donations and relief goods for victims of disasters. Instead of distributing the goods to typhoon Yolanda victims, she left the goods to rot in warehouses. Despite this, she doesn’t apologize for her shortfalls and can be seen acting like everything is in order. Never mind those who are suffering a year on after the devastating typhoon that ravaged Leyte and the siege in Zamboanga City.
Let’s not forget calls for the Chief of Philippine National Police Alan Purisima to step down amid rising criminality in the country, including crimes committed by the cops themselves. In his case, it is indeed a bit too soon to ask him to step down. Just because some cops were witnessed brazenly kidnapping a businessman in broad daylight and in the middle of EDSA recently doesn’t mean it is something new. After all, rogue cops in the Philippines have been operating for a long time. It’s only now that they have been busted thanks to people’s easy access to sophisticated devices and the increasing use of social media for citizen journalism. The real question is, was Purisima aware of his men’s extra-curricular activities prior to this bust or not? It remains to be seen how he plans to police members of the police force.
With trust in government including members of law enforcement agencies running low, it’s no surprise some Filipinos are taking matters into their own hands. The people’s morale go down even further when they hear President BS Aquino blame everything on the previous administrator after four years in office, then brags about his government’s “gains” and wanting a term extension. Hearing him repeat the same thing over and over is enough to make people go crazy and turn aggressive.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
Nice item @ Iida. Although sa ibang site may mga nag rereact na mali daw ang ginawa nung mga estudyante. Bakit saan ba sila nakakita na ang Magnanakaw ay hindi kinuyog ng taong bayan kundi pina pamper at inaalagan? Sa Gobyernong Abnoy lang nangyayari ang ganun kasi si Hari ng Sablay mismo ang kumukunsinte sa mga Kawatan niyang Alipores.
Yung mga nag rereact negatively dapat mag punta sila sa mga Kulungan at ampunin ang mga magnanakaw at snatchers na naka kulong kung yan ang akala nilang tama.
Nakikinikinita ko na na eepal sa issueng yan sina Tae Rossales at Laila Halimaw, mga number one Attack Pigs not Dogs ha ni BS Aquino.
The Aquino admin has been proven time and again taking the filipino people for fools and they have the gall to mention civility? Only a person sick in the brain will stand up for civility after their 4 years of robbing the country.
The filipino people, especially those who are endlessly endeared to the Aquinos should take this incident as a large billboard saying “the president you voted into office is a lazy, incompetent oaf with the ultimate goal of enriching himself and his KKKK with your tax money and at the same time putting their family name in a pedestal as “heroes” regardless of your poor standards of living”.
It seems that what we’ve been saying for the past years is now coming true.
The mauling of abad is definitely a sign of things to come but one thing’s for sure, it won’t be easy for aquino and his cohorts to weasel their way out of the impending crisis caused by their arrogance.
Oh Yes it will, THEY ARE LAUGHING AT ALL OF YOU !!! only one way to deal with these POS, that is surround the Senate and Palais with 200,000 people at each place and tell them if they do not leave the country and resign immediately and forfeit all of their wealth, then the jaws of hell will open and swallow them.Watch how fast the run.
BUT, anything short of that was just mentioned and you, the filippine people will just continue to get laughed at !
… a dose of their own medicine? BS has gone big-time (international) in lambasting the previous administration… with these verbal assaults, wouldn’t it be fair to have them taste their own form of abuse?
They have caused senseless deaths as a result of their seeming incompetence or apathy. Verbal assaults on the previous admin is hardly their “medicine”. The truth about the sham of a presidency and about this clan should be exposed to the people– and then shot in a firing squad, let it be known to the future administrators that the filipino people should be feared and not be screwed around.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!
Pasalamat si Abad yun pa lang inabot nya. He and BS Aquino should never go out in public again. coins pa lang ngayon ang tumatama sa kanila. with anger growing every day, malamang durugin na sila sa bugbog sa susunod.
Hey Abad, how do you like having a taste of reality for once?
Both BS Peenoy and Abad are now “persona non grata” in U.P.!
Think they give a shit ? HA ! They are laughing at the little shit-heads !
As Filipinos, we all recognise this principle: ‘walang iwanan’ — ‘no one gets left behind.’ No matter what. On the one hand, narrow minds will appreciate the inherent loyalty in the concept. On the other, this Filipino attitude places more importance on upholding family, friends and cronies over duty, responsibility and the greater concept of ‘nation.’ For that reason, Penoy’s KKK cabinet will never resign and they, in turn, expect Penoy will keep them in place regardless of how incompetent or corrupt or troublesome they prove themselves to be. With each instance the president expresses ‘confidence’ in his non-performing underlings, he and his cadre of emotionally retarded brats are effectively sticking their middle fingers in the face of the Filipino people.
and Filipino’s just stand there like idiots !
Before 2010 elections in Ateneo, our mock elections resulted that Gibo ‘won’ and Pnoy was somewhere past 4th place. Even old professors who taught Pnoy joked that it would be the apocalypse if someone with a mindset like Pnoy would be president. The majority agreed that we want someone with the right qualifications something Pnoy never had.
After the elections, I jokingly predicted that this term will bring the worst in the country and less than a year I was correct.
From the hostage crisis, mismanagement of funds and ‘projects’ to exposing how easy it is to manipulate and downright deceive us citizens. Since this government already wasted 4 years of potential, it would be the start of a societal collapse.
Oh Please, let us not start another People Power XXXX???? (It didn’t do much afterward.)
It doesn’t mean that UPians are not civilized, but it shows that they cannot be fooled
Well of course students should not act like that. However the fact that one of the most aggressive critics came from a premier university, doesn’t mean that they are uncivilized, but it shows that they cannot be fooled and how bad the government really is.
The government doesn’t response to people’s dissent in the first place.
Anyways, I doubt that he will proclaim Martial Law if the country is thrown in a state of anarchy (although we are already in that state, multiple rape, dishonest police force, gangs and sleeping gov’t) If he do, then it will nullify all the “yellow things” that they fight for.
I wouldn‘t be surprised if UP‘s budget would be slashed by Abad. Remember, PNoy‘s administration is a vindictive one? And of course, arrogant. PNoy is very protective of his own people, no matter how incompetent they are. The likes of Roxas, Abad, Abaya, Ona, Petilla, Soliman, Naguiat, Llamas, Purisima and Lacierda. PNoy‘s team has the nerve to be arrogant amidst bad budget practice, high crime rates and looming energy crisis. Are these officials expecting red carpet treatment? They are lucky that majority of the people still keep their patience. But, storming Malacanan with an angry taumbayan, not mob, is not a bad idea neither.
I certainly hope there won’t be any budget cuts. The country needs to train and feed the minds of these young people. We are now at the demographic sweet spot, if this government does not recognize this and mismanages it over this incident, I fear that we will miss chance at development.
Here’s the scenario PNoy and Abad should be excited about: The two of them and their traffickers reenacting Gaddafi hiding like a rat in a sewer while the mob can’t wait to get back at them.
Daring the people instead of revisiting their conscience?
What do you do, when you are talking to a wall?
Aquino has the nerve to tell story of how he and Abad fooled Filipino voters, to be romantically linked to a woman/singer/actress.
This is the mindset of an unscropolous DECEIVER.
No wonder, this family created serf/tenants in their Hacienda Luisita. His father, Ninoy Aquino, Jr. was a rabid supporter of the NPA.
And, he was elected as President on HOCUS PCOS. Aquino and Abad conspired to STEAL Public Funds, thru the DAP, PDAF, etc…
Aquino even boasted of his crookedness and his evil deeds of fooling voters.
Aquino cannot remove these co-conspirators in his thievery of Public funds…they are crooked and incompetent. But, they are useful to him for his evil purpose…
“promote responsibility in the exercise of the freedom of expression and civility while engaging in political discourse.”
Bullshit! The thinking population of the Philippines had been doing that for four years now, and how did they react? They dismissed us all as “bashers” or “haters”. They have labeled us as a “noisy minority” and have even accused us of receiving money from “those who oppose them” (with no shred of evidence for which whatsoever). And worst of all, they have labeled us as “anti-progress” when in truth we are only speaking out for the welfare of the nation and it’s actually them who are ruining the Philippines now.
They have, since the start of their administration, shown ABSOLUTELY no respect to the grievances of their own people and they have the gall to demand for respect? Fuck you all you pig-faced sons of bitches! Fuck you all so much! I will not feel sorry for them at all if they get their heads blown off by a high-powered gun. I’ll even take their splaterred brains on the ground and distribute them under the soils of my lovely garden for all my flowers and fruit to grown on.
Sorry for the coarse language. But it’s just how you have put it in this article, Ilda. The patience is waning, and the rage inside is now showing itself. Sorry again for the coarse language.
Filipinos SHOULD HAVE taken matters into their own hands and not depend on the government from the very start…
Do consider who actually put these people into power before you posted this online. You’d save yourself from embarrassment.
I think he made a very valid point. No need to rely on government. Instead of cutting the powers of just the supreme court, why not a general roll-back of government powers, give more and more power to the people, regulate businesses less, allow people to form militias. Government should just stick to infrastructure, defense and law enforcement and they should do their jobs well. The less work there is for the government to do, the fewer chances there are to get kickbacks, and no one will have to expect or wait for the government to give jobs or housing or anything like that. A leaner government will be less corrupt, people will expect less and thus, fewer complaints. The problem with our government is that it is set up as a welfare state, and obviously we do not have the expertise, the culture and the institutions to make it work.
Well, if we don’t like the present cohorts of ‘leaders’, come 2016 we can elect a new setr of chorts who govern us in the same manner that the adminicurrentstration is doing to our public funds. Indeed, the people, as shown by UP students who harassed Sec. Abad et al, are frustrated by the way things are going on in the country. I guess it is up to the government if they will find it appropriate to address the concerns of the people, to listen to the grievances, and to make atonement and amend their ways.
“Some even think he should have been thrown into the garbage bin”
We don’t have bigger trash bin for aBAD, only a knee high trash bin or hip high trash bin. Unless, students will broke his bones; that’s too barbaric, how about throwing eggs or tomatoes? that’s very impractical knowing how much it cost right now. Okay, just throw our shit to his face.
THE GLORY THAT WAS CORY, ALL THE REST WAS HISTORY. PNOY WAS THE FOOL TO TRAMPED ON THE LEGACY OF HIS PARENTS., MAKING A MOCKERY OUT OF THE MISERY THE FILIPINOS HOPE TO OVERCOME. WE ENDED A FUCKED-UP LIFE UNDER HIS ADMINISYRATION.