When PNoy's rating goes down he attacks GMA

For tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, while I was in Manila the other week for a few days, I got a call from an old friend who asked me if I would like to interview the Defense Team of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. First thing in my mind was, with the resumption of the Senate Impeachment trial today, it would certainly be a hot topic and a good way for me to get some inside information about the happenings in the Senate and so I agreed to do the show.

Originally, I was set to interview Atty. Tranquil Salvador III, but as it turned out, I even got more than what I bargained for. I also had Atty. Rico Paulo Quicho and that beautiful and brilliant Harvard graduate Atty. Karen Jimeno. By the time they got to Cebu last Wednesday, the fourth team member Atty. Jose Roy, III also joined the group. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any more space in the studio, so Atty. Roy just joined the group during the presscon and the radio interviews and our Rotary Club meeting last Thursday.

One of the things I learned about the team over lunch and dinner is their cohesiveness. You can say that former Justice Cuevas is their Team manager or coach. They truly acted like a basketball team and could respond to any difficult question that is thrown at them. Best of all, though I only met them that day… they took me in like I was an old buddy, after all, they also read my columns in the Star in their free time.

They also shared with me their frustration about the media in Manila… that more often than not… they would like their side of the issue to be out in the news… but it doesn’t happen. Yet almost all of them are literally glued to their cellphones taking calls from the media.

This is why last Thursday morning, when they read The Freeman and Sun Star, which gave their presscon report high importance, they told me that the Cebu media is totally different from our counterparts in Manila. Let me also say that during the Rotary Club meeting, they outdid themselves, answering the toughest questions that my Rotary friends could ask. Notable amongst them is Atty. Tranquil who was once an Assistant Governor of Rotary. Of course, Atty. Karen Jimeno took their breath away as she showed us that beautiful women in the legal profession can take on any tough question.

So watch the three members of the Defense Team on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. tonight with replays on MyTV channel 28 to follow. We also have replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel.

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The headlines of the national dailies last Friday blared, “Poor Families rise to 11.1%... Self-rated poverty surges by 2 million families. More than half of households claim to be poor, up from 45 percent in December” is another proof that the anti-poverty programs of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III wasn’t working. I’ve said it here before… his dole-out program called Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) would never work because when you feed the poor and the hungry today, they will still be hungry tomorrow.

But then, what can we expect from a President who had no performance when he was a Congressman and more non-performance when he was a Senator? No doubt, the solution to eradicating poverty is more money for the education of our youth and more job opportunities here through foreign direct investors. But we all know that the President’s focus was the impeachment of CJ Corona… so now the nation is paying for this serious lack of attention, which many now dub as “Noynoying.”

With the popularity of the President plummeting (though I can still sense that his propaganda machinery which includes SWS and Pulse Asia are still propping him up), the President spoke before the Asian Development Bank Board of Governors during its 45th Annual meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) and did the “Classic PNoy” by once more lambasting the past administrations suggesting that they stole the funds that the ADB gave for the country.

PNoy said, “Gone are the days when the funds you funnel to our country will end up like water leaking through a broken pail.” The President pointed out that under his administration, there was “Transparency, accountability, and prudent spending” that enabled the government to maximize its use of resources for the people. I will not deny that under PNoy, he will pour P40 Billion in Metro Manila’s infrastructure development. But the people of Mindanao, which suffers from pesky brownouts, are not happy.

Here in Cebu, we still have to see a PNoy proposed infrastructure project that is conceived, designed, funded and implemented by Pres. Aquino. When PNoy’s ratings and popularity are going down fast… he does what we’ve expected him to do, once more accuse the previous administration of corruption. GMA rattling at this point won’t bring back his popularity anymore. The Filipino people now know we can’t move under Pres. PNoy!

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