EDITORIAL - Noynoy's advisers failing him

Whoever may be the advisers of Noynoy Aquino are, they were either sleeping or simply cannot recognize work when it needs to be done. For advising the president against becoming the poster boy of a Department of Health wellness campaign was what they were precisely paid to do.

Noynoy, an unapologetic and inveterate smoker, may be the president of the land, but he cannot be a credible model and endorser of any health and wellness campaign. Noynoy cannot find himself on a page devoted to healthy living without provoking questions about his smoking.

The Department of Health may have felt obliged to invite the participation of no less than the president in its health campaign. But by the same token, presidential advisers should have felt obliged to protect their boss from getting into tricky situations.

All these aside, however, it is a wonder how Noynoy himself could have missed seeing that he was headed straight for a trap, no matter how inadvertently it may have been set. Did he not see the incongruity between his heavy smoking and the healthy living he was promoting? 

There is mounting concern among those who have been watching the president closely that this latest flap is but part of a presidential shortcoming consisting of an inherent inability to appreciate the circumstances around him and take stock of what he is getting into.

To be sure, Noynoy has no inkling about the presidency despite being the son of a former president. He has merely been thrust into the position by those who seized the opportunity to cash in on his mother’s death for their own political gain.

But one would have thought that in situations where circumstances are so clear-cut, when the only requirement to succeed is nothing fancy or presidential but just plain old common sense, that Noynoy would at least pass the simple tests with flying colors.

How agonizing that he would not. And how frustrating to realize he is in fact surrounded with highly-paid advisers who are supposed to look out for him. Many of the problems Noynoy finds himself in are not of his own making but of his useless advisers. He should start firing.