President Aquino can’t live on propaganda alone!

Three years into his Presidency, if only President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III stayed on a true, straight and right path to progress I would have waited until he made his State of the Nation Address (SONA) to write my comments about his “Mid-Term” report. But what’s the point in waiting for the President’s SONA when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) already gave the President a failing grade?

Knowing how the CBCP works… this group just doesn’t recklessly issue out failing grades without any valid reason. I’m sure that the CBCP can also see through Malacañang’s propaganda offensive versus what is the reality today. A very specific issue that no less than CBCP president and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma warned P-Noy is for his administration not to keep secrets from the Filipino people. I fully agree. By now P-Noy should already know that his government couldn’t live on propaganda alone.

The CBCP also wanted the President to disclose what really happened in the last May 2013 elections, especially that mysterious 60% of the votes favoring the Liberal Party (LP), 30% favoring UNA and 10% for the rest. This phenomenon could only happen in a digital elections which can easily be manipulated by an IT programmer using the PCOS machines.

But today, the Comelec doesn’t seem to care that that IT experts have uncovered their sinister plot to cheat for the LP. They have become so arrogantly confident about the apathy of the Filipino people, who at this point still do not realize that their precious democracy was robbed right before their very eyes… just like what happened in February of 1986 when the Marcos Dictatorship used the Comelec to make a mockery out of our democracy, which ended with the walkout of the computer programmers and triggered the now famous EDSA Revolt.

The CBCP also wanted to know the truth about the real state of the Philippine economy. If we’re beating all the other ASEAN economies, how come the poverty index has risen? The Aquino regime crows a lot about their so-called Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and we warned the President that giving doleout to the poor will not reduce the number of our poor. But he didn’t listen. If only they put all those billions into job creation projects…there would certainly be lesser people wallowing in poverty today.

I’m sure that the minions of President Aquino are questioning the motive of the CBCP for giving the President a failing grade because of his pushing for the highly-controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Law. However, they cannot deny that despite all that, the CBCP is right in questioning the results of the May 2013 elections… more so that the Comelec website has shown a huge and dramatic reduction in the votes cast. How could this happen?

Worse, we don’t hear any explanation from the Comelec why they have done this. But the Aquino regime is mum about this case and the LPs are gloating over their tarnished election victory. But this is a hollow and empty victory because there is now a growing and brewing anti-political dynasty sentiment and it no longer matters if they belong to the LP or UNA. It’s about time that Pres. Aquino knew that we did not fight the Marcos dictatorship only to be replaced by political dynasties 27 years after the EDSA revolt. So will we finally hear talk of political reforms so we can finally get rid of the political elite?

Finally last Saturday, that think-thank from the University of the Philippines (UP) called Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) also held a presscon and CenPEG Director for policy studies Prof. Bobby Tuazon said in his opening statement, “President Aquino III’s first three years in office only further entrenched elite rule in all major aspects of governance, politically and economically. The much-touted latest GDP growth was actually sustained by the country’s marginalized sector—remittances from OFWs — as well as election spending. The claimed GDP growth had no trickle-down effect and only widened the gap between the small super-rich and the majority of Filipinos who continue to wallow in untold poverty under Aquino.”

On the political issues, CenPEG fellow and chairman of the board Prof. Temario Rivera said, “The mid-term elections resulted in the entrenchment of political dynasties in 95% of 81 Provinces. Indications are that the system of political dynasties has not only perpetuated but became more entrench in Congress and local levels under Aquino.” Again, we dare say that all this has happened under this Comelec that misused the PCOS machines for the LP!

There are many more groups out there, including those leftists organizations who have given Pres. Aquino a failing grade. So do we expect changes from mediocre Aquino presidency? Three years ago, we already wrote that when he was still a Presidential candidate, Pres. Aquino was a non-performer in the Senate and in Congress. I’m afraid, I was right!

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