Oh, shit! You mean someone actually called JICA?
For all the stupid things President BS Aquino v. 3.0 says to provide fodder for online and offline critics, it is actually rare to catch him in a flat lie. Rare, but apparently not impossible:
Among his otherwise-forgettable comments made during his appearance in locations that are not the City of Tacloban to mark the first anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda, N/A revealed a plan to move the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban to a new location. The new airport, which would cost approximately P12 billion to build, would probably be located in neighboring Palo, which is coincidentally ruled by Aquino favorites the Petilla clan and not the relatives of Imelda Marcos like Tacloban is, although Malacanang naturally denied politics had anything to do with the idea.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
Aquino’s rationale was that the airport would either require a safer location or extensive work, such as a new seawall, to protect it from future storms; to forestall the obvious question, “If that’s the case, why don’t you just build a seawall?” Aquino claimed that the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had shown him a study recommending that the airport be moved.
Although the local news media reported comments from Mayor Romualdez refuting Aquino’s claim, what should be the SOP step for reporters and editors to “call the agency being discussed by politicians with a personal ax to grind against each other and ask what’s really going on” was apparently overlooked, or so the nice lady I spoke to at JICA’s local office hinted when I called over there this afternoon.
It’s that kind of non-linear thinking — you know, looking up a phone number and making a phone call — that separates us columnists from the unwashed masses.
In any event, JICA did confirm that they have conducted exactly zero studies on the Tacloban Airport and have issued the corresponding number of recommendations about it (which is also zero). Instead, what they have informally suggested is that a “hazard assessment” of the airport be carried out, presumably with an eye towards identifying what sort of protective structures or other modifications could be done to reduce risks from typhoons.
“We talked about this [the hazard assessment, and the absence of any other recommendation concerning the airport] in a forum yesterday,” the JICA official explained, referring to the 2nd National Conference and Workshop of Philippine-Japan Collaborative Project (NCW), part of the Coastal Ecosystem Conservation and Adaptive Management, held Monday (in other words, two or three days after N/A’s ill-advised comments) at the University of the Philippines.
“Relocating the airport is entirely up to the government, we did not recommend that,” she added, just in case anything about the issue was still a little fuzzy.
Whether Aquino’s lie about JICA support for an idea that everyone here, to their credit, instantly recognized as childish political bullying will draw any sort of response from the development agency or the Japanese government — as N/A’s ill-mannered attempts to put words in other government’s mouths have in the past — remains to be seen; that question was beyond the purview of the JICA official I spoke to.
I write a column for The Manila Times on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Most of the energy sector and the heads of several government agencies probably wish I didn’t.
Well, in PNoy’s brain, the location of the airport in “unfriendly” territory IS a hazard. So once again, he’s proven that his thinking is on a different level from us normal humans.
Read: idiotic, petty, petulant. Ok fine, I’ll just come out and say it: retarded.
do not insult the retards.
Hey, I resemble that remark,
Actually it should be the Aquino’s brain should be relocated. Coz I believe it is currently placed in his footpalm.
Or better yet up His ASS! That’s why it’s full of SHIT!!!
There’s much money to be had in creating a new airport compared to just repairing. Money which they can later somehow divert the majority of its funds and find a way to declare it as “savings”. Much easier when the people you are handing the funds over to are subservient.
Wasn’t the Petillas and Loretos allied with Erap one time or another? And to the Arroyos before that? Sometimes, I forget Philippine politics is as fickle as the typhoons that annually batter it.
Want to transfer an airport? transfer the NAIA far from residential areas and the smog of metro manila or atleast fix it.
WTZh would anybody even be surprised? They don’t call him BullShit Aquino for nothing.
It should be “WTF would anybody … “
Relocating the Tacloban Airport, will never make it safe from the destruction of typhoons. What an imbecile mind Aquino have….
Playing politics in the rebuilding of peoples’ lives is cruel; especially, if it comes from a President…
See my opinion posted in FB: https://www.facebook.com/ricky.petilla/posts/940114512683753
Thanks for your very informative comment… let us share and post…
Yes. Very informative. I actually find it ironic that you’re surname is Petilla. Haha
Guys, what if NAIA be renamed again as Manila International Airport? So that Philippines will be back again at the Map of Airlines,business Investors and Tourism industry. Let’s do it.
What’s wrong with the current name? (Aside from this site spitting hellfire and brimstone upon the mere mention of an Aquino, of course.)
What’s wrong? Are you regarded???
NAIA is well known as the shittiest airport in Asia if not simply this side of the moon.
I can almost see a street or even a supermarket named after a corrupt piece of shit, but the country’s capital airport? Jesus, even the Chinese, North Koreans or South American banana republics don’t stoop that low.
I mean, are you retarded???
What a name change will do to the airport, I don’t know, but it’s a stretch to assume that Ninoy’s name is the instigator of all our tourism troubles.
Simple: it’s named after a fake hero and it’s very disgraceful. Manila International Airport is the original name FYI.
Lope Cortez…That is a good suggestion… Bring back what we called MANILA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT that had been world known… It is very ridiculous,,, to renamed it to NINOY international Airport,,, not even build that airport during CORY’s reign…God bless the Philippines…
i agree …Manila International Airport is world known…than NAIA…
The Aquinos made themselves: saints and heroes. Buildings, airports, roads, etc…are named after them. They are in our currency that is in inflationary rates.
Sad. That says a lot about the intelligence and integrity of the average Filipino. Sad.
You may change the name but if its quality still down low, “Manila International Airport” will remain infamously bad throughout the world.
MIA. Missing In Action.
so sad..
Oh common! Administration should focus on the truly Gateway of the Philippines which is called the Worst airport in the world…not just transferring Tacloban airport to Palo.Tacloban airport is the nicer plane landing in the asia…
Well, just rehabilitate the DZR Airport in Tacloban, put a high and durable seawall with gigantic wave breakers and name it Benigno Aquino Airport. I think that will sove the problem and political bickerings..
There were funds appropriated for that purpose but then the President declared those funds ‘Savings’, placed it in the DAP and used the money for who knows what.
Nakaka frustrate lang kasi kahit anong rant and rave na gagawin, di tumatalab kay Aquino. Akala ko ba kami ang boss mo? BINGI LANG ANG PEG MO? Of all times to do “politicking” ngayon pa talaga ha. Nakikita mo ba ang sitwasyon ng mga tao? Kung sa bagay you have never experienced mga kahirapan sa buhay. Kaya ka ganyan. Kaya please lang ha? Wag ka namang GAGO at MAGPAKA IMMATURE sa mga panahon na ganyan. Magsama sama kayo ng mga KURAKOT, SHUNGA, SALOT SA LIPUNAN, AT WALANG SILBI MONG GABINETE. You are the most useless, among others, president the Philippines ever had. Syet! Nakakahiya ka. I wonder if even one filipino citizen is proud of you.
kaya na pa BS Aquino eh “Bullshit Aquino” ala meaning nun hahahaha
I will firmly believe JICA more, rather than a dumbass retard named BS Aquino, which stands for BULLSHIT.
If BS Aquino was my subordinate, and likes to do his own thing (which BS does always), I’d say this straight on his dumbass face.
“YOU SHUT UP! Next time you don’t follow my orders I dump you with the rest of the garbage, you got that?”
But for a retard like BS, he doesn’t care anyway.
This story is pure BULLSHIT. Who is the person that made the statement for JICA ? NAME??? The word of ONE person, an un-named person, is enough to cry the President was caught lying ? NO WY, sorry I’m calling BULLSHIT on this one. It seems that someone is lying which makes them just as bad as the lying weasel that is accused of lying in this article.
WHAT TOTAL BULL-SHIT !
Nah. Not bullshit. Just call up JICA yourself, which Ben Kritz did. You’re sure to get the same answer.