Apologies count a lot. Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III has so far done everything but apologise. If he won’t apologise for being responsible then he should at least apologise for what happened under his watch.
Lots of things could have been done differently, and even if Aquino could not possibly control everything, he could have, as the country’s most powerful man, been a stronger influence on activities and events that led to outcomes whether they are the actual ones or the could-have-beens. Not being so is something to apologise for. What’s the point of being the most powerful man in the Philippines? The point is highlighted when Filipinos are searching for answers in the aftermath of a tragic outcome. As the President of the Philippines, BS Aquino will always be in the spotlight so long as he holds that office. As such, he is expected to step up to the part he was elected to play.
But what has President BS Aquino been doing instead? Rather than be a bit more self-aware and mindful of what his “bosses” are saying, he’s dug his heels in and focuses on the adolescent business of lashing out. The president lashes out at his perceived “enemies” whenever there is an audience willing to listen. And lately, that audience has been dwindling. Whereas in the past, his audience would consist of people naturally gravitating to his presence, now it consists of people cherry-picked for their contrived loyalty. No surprise then that the inbreeding of the ideas at President BS Aquino’s disposal has become more acute.
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When you choose to surround yourself with people who offer nothing but pats on your back, you become less resilient to criticism and from-left-field ideas that broaden one’s view of the world — and you start your descent to irrelevance. You start to believe that you are the one chosen to be “blessed” and all the rest doomed to be cursed. It is not unlike being suckered into one of those “prayer meetings” and turned into an addict to the dopamine fixes induced by song and chants. A brain routinely engulfed by happy chemicals quickly becomes atrophied in its areas reserved for critical thinking.
The trouble with BS Aquino is that he’s never been a statesman in any real sense of the word. Real statesmen are a rare breed. And in a country that struggles to find even just one good president amongst its 101 million souls, Aquino has proven to be just another traditional choice of a people long-accustomed to embracing the lowest-common-denominator option. Politics is 99 percent communication and Aquino has lost the battle on that front which is a fatal loss considering that the opportunity to spin an astounding military (or, as the case may be, police) defeat when you are no less than the Commander-in-Chief and top boss of the national police force is a fleeting one. Aquino all but squandered that opportunity over the two days following the breaking of the news about the deaths of those 44 Special Action Force police officers.
Aquino’s apologists cry Unfair! when beholding the overwhelming imagery and footage streaming out of both new and old media of rows of flag-draped caskets being unloaded from a military plane and the who’s-who of politicians and other personalities standing solemnly on-site to pay tribute to these fallen heroes. Perhaps it is “unfair”. But seing it from that lens is missing the real point. The point at work here is that, yet again, Aquino chose to be a mere administrator (and not even a good one at that) rather than step up and be a real leader in these critical times.
But, see, all roads lead back to the Filipino people — the ones, if we recall Yellow Rhetoric 101, who have been put on a pedestal and made out to be the source of anyone’s mandate to govern and lead. In BS Aquino, Filipinos have collectively chosen badly. Foolishly even.
BS Aquino, after all, was foremost The Catholic President. Following the death of his much-loved mother and in the lead up to the 2010 presidential elections he was said to have gone to a prayer retreat during which the wisdom of pursuing the presidency was divinely “revealed” to him. This “prayerful” character of BS Aquino — an image he inherited from his even more prayerful parents — was a strong contributor to what endeared him to his prayerful constituents. So perhaps it is now seeing him taking up the cause of enemy infidels that infuriates Filipinos today. And recent revelations that these infidels are being backed and possibly funded by the Malaysian government further enforces the growing public perception that BS Aquino is Bangsamoro first, Yellow a close second, and Filipino a far far distant third.
Ultimately what may have really done President BS Aquino in was plain garden variety vanity. After five years of stumbling from one gaffe to an epic fail, and then to yet another gaffe, perhaps the poor guy just so desperately wanted to succeed for a change in a spectacular way. Unfortunately that desperation may have turned an otherwise healthy drive to succeed into a reckless pursuit of vindication premised on the wrong principles.
We’re talking about a sovereign who would negotiate with terrorists together with a foreign government with which his country is caught in a thorny territorial dispute which, as is increasingly evident now, happens to be one of the possible roots underlying the existence of said terrorists. President BS Aquino’s government is pretty much a failure by design at its most fundamental levels.
The president of the Philippines must apologise to his people. He needs to man up and, for once, before his term ends, act like the leader Filipinos elected him to be.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Too bad because this president don’t see why he should put others before himself. He’s a president anyway, he’s an important man. He’s in that position not to humble himself but to be a star spouting garbage like his sister Kris.
I think Communism is best for everyones brains. Regarding the Pdaf and dap happenings.
We first need to destroy this culture of corruption and irresponsibility. Mula taas pababa. As with our government, everybody who’s done pork barrel spending spree is tainted, so much spending without notable pay off and PNoy have his hands on PDAF/DAF since he’d sworn his “Daang Matuwid” to every Filipino for fast spending kuno on national projects then for suhol or cash gifts to his confederates (pork barrel is the source of evil in the Philippine government, the reason that keeps our leaders corrupt and incompetent). And being guilty already, he made a scapegoat of those who serve under his inutile governance instead of leading and demanding them to serve the people in far better and divergent ways to what the previous government has done. Ebidensya, same old problems exist mula sa basura sa paligid hanggang sa basura sa gobyerno and what do we have here – all the same elected officials as before.
Aquino has a Very Large Ego. You can see, by his buying of his PhD degree, at Fordham University in the U.S. He also aspires for the Nobel Prize for Peace. This is a man who never excelled in his academic field; nor in his political career….so, he will NEVER apologize. He thinks himself, as a King of the YellowTards…
Some very astute observations by my good friend, Mrs.T Malek who has visited the Philippines on several occasions, although this could be her last trip, due to the increased level of retardation witnessed and mentioned by many.The first thing she wishes to point out is the effects of poor air quality on the human species.Lung disease, neurodevelopment disorders, impaired learning ability,damaged brain cells, short term memory problems,and autism are only a few of the dangers that exist due to the prolonged exposure to air pollution.Do you think this might have something to do with the apathetic attitude in this country?At least in the cities?I was stuck in a jeepney a couple weeks ago in Cebu City during rush hour.The jeep was going nowhere, so we decided to exit…I was having dizzy spells, and literally almost passed out as I jumped from the back.Not to mention that both my wife and I have had some pretty serious respiratory issues either in Cebu or Manila.The next issue brought up by my friend was nutrition, or the lack thereof.Although everywhere we went, Luzon, Cebu, Mindanao or points in between, the markets were absolutely teeming with food, we wondered if the average filipino could afford it, and whether or not the food had any nutritional value. We say this because it was our observation, that although there was lots of fruits, veggies, poultry, fish, pork etc.it didnt seem like many were buying.Are food costs going up so that pinoys can no longer make good choices when it comes to buying fresh foods, and are stuck with buying all that processed crap we see in the supermarkets, which is absolutely devoid of wholesomeness? Another thing I want to mention is just because all this fresh produce looks vibrant and healthy, sadly doesn’t mean it is so.
Alot of the rices, and veggies and possibly the fruits have been genetically modified to be “roundup ready”,among other things.Round Up is a chemical that is sprayed on the fields to prevent weed infestation, etc, and works by preventing the weed from absorbing nutrients from the soil, thus killing it.Since the edible crops are now modified to be round up resistant, they don’t die, but the residues from the chemical get into the food supply.It was found that these residues can actually prevent you or I, or whoever eats the vegetable from absorbing the nutrients from it, thus we actually become nutritionally deficient.I think that nutritional deficiencies play a huge role in in our mental and physical health, and voila, another possible explanation for the stupor is see that is so existant today.Another is dehydration.I have travelled to the Philippines for more than 20yrs, and Have hardly ever seen filipinos drinking an adequate amount of water.It is the basis for all life and yet some actually just plain refuse to drink it because”it makes me pee so much”…..is not that the point? To nourish and cleanse your body from the inside out? A major symptom of dehydration is sleepiness and confusion……sound familiar??Again We have to wonder if it is just too expensive, that the filipino has to forgo the purchase of something that is so vital to good health, or is there some other opposition…please tell me….Finally the last thing Mrs Malek wanted to mention was the lack of sleep…Taxi drivers working 24 hr.shifts, guys sleeping in their tricycles, atop coconuts at the buko stand, on cots in the back of their market stall….how do you get a good 8 hours in? Lack of sleep seriously affects my mood, judgement, and generally puts me in a bad humor…how on earth can I be expected to make good decisions if im dead tired, dehydrated, nutritionally depleted and feel like dog waste because I have to breathe in and process all the dirty air?
Sorry, my previous post was in response to Grimwald’s last article regarding maturity and development….not this one
An apology is the super glue of life. It can repair just about anything. Never ruin an apology with an excuse.