EDITORIAL - Public scolding unpresidential

President Aquino has this unwholesome and unsavory tendency to scold people in public. He has done it several times before and he spares no rank nor place when the urge to go on a bashing binge hits him.

His most infamous public scolding was that of then chief justice Renato Corona, in the presence of Corona himself, and before other members of the judiciary. In other words, in front of Corona’s own men by an outsider, the chief of a co-equal branch of government.

To his everlasting credit. Corona held his peace. If for that alone, he was way above the hooliganism exhibited by a president. Corona may have been eventually removed from office. But to this day — in fact more so today than yesterday — Aquino has yet to prove he is a better man.

Last Tuesday, Aquino was at it again. At the 72nd anniversary celebration of the Bureau of Immigration, and with no one in particular in mind, the president proceeded to scold those gathered over the escape of several high profile crime suspects.

The immensity of the powers Aquino holds in his hands is almost unimaginable. To revive an old joke from dictatorial times, the president can very well order a typhoon to change its course. If the escape happened, Aquino is as much at fault as those who actually facilitated it.

Remember that even before he became president, while still campaigning for the office, Aquino was already promising the moon and the stars about cleaning the government. And indeed he has jailed a former president and booted out a chief justice, although both by dubious means.

But if Aquino has to count his winning marbles, he must also account for the ones that he lost. The escape of those high profile suspects happened under his watch, in an administration that professes to be squeaky clean.

The motes Aquino sees in the mirror are not on the mirror but on his eyes and he must not pretend otherwise by pointing them out at everyone at the BI. The escape happened because there are loose ends Aquino has not properly strung up and he must own up to the lapse.

Aquino must not blame others for lapses over which he is ultimately responsible. But if blame he must, he must do so in a manner worthy of presidential decorum and demeanor. And if he is clueless as to the actual culprits, he must learn to shut up until he has something to say.