Prompter out of order

It did not take long for Pope Francis, thousands of kilometers away in the Vatican, to issue words of comfort and encouragement to the victims of the latest maritime disaster to hit the country -- that of a cargo ship and a passenger ferry just outside the Cebu harbor.

Closer to home, not a word was heard from Malacañang and its occupant. At the time the pope issued an official statement in connection with the tragedy, the man whom many expected should have been way ahead of the pope in saying anything was blissfully silent and noncommital.

In fairness, President Aquino was said to be still recuperating from an allergic reaction to flowers. Still I wonder whether that would be a hindrance to his saying even just a word or two of commiseration with the victims, all of whom are his constituents.

His normally garrulous mouthpieces neither plucked words pleasing to any victim's ear on his behalf nor hinted, no matter how vaguely, that the president was even remotely aware of the tragedy and the plight of the victims.

Instead, the Palace spokespersons, as they are often wont to do, assumed the air of high authority and began promising fire and brimstone on those responsible for the accident. The flies on the carabao's back are truly pesky on their high perch.

But never mind the trumpeters. At worst, they are just temporary inconveniences in the course of one nation's life. There is never any temporariness in a president, though, as even an allergic sneeze can alter the course of a country, or the lives of its people.

The fact that our country is an archipelago whose principal mode of moving people and cargo is through shipping should have rang a bell immediately in our president's consciousness, regardless of whether he has been decked by flowers.

Nobody expected him to release something earth-shaking as a policy statement on the state of shipping in this country. But at least a word or two would have been sufficient as a lean-to for those teetering on the brink of life's irreparable cruelties.

And this brings us to another point -- is the president really just suffering from some minor inconvenience brought about by a flower allergy? Or is there something that no one is telling anyone about his real condition.

On the day the pope issued his statement regarding the tragedy, the news about the president's condition was that he was feeling a bit better, which is to say that he could have similarly said a word or two in solidarity with those involved in the tragedy. That is if he truly cared.

But it appears that the president is not that caring about people involved in tragedies. As everyone in this country knows by now, he once famously visited empty-handed the site of a devastating typhoon and had to borrow relief goods from local governments for use in his name once his great mistake was discovered.

But I doubt very much if these repeated instances of uncaring behavior can be acknowledged as mistakes. More like a flaw in character to me. And that is very strange, considering that President Noynoy came to power on the strength of his mass appeal against the black knights of corruption and excess.

By the time you read this, Noynoy may have eventually said his thing or two about the disaster, by which time it would not have mattered much, even if he gave a speech. People, especially those in need, always have that uncanny ability to tell if one is speaking from the heart or as a matter of reflexive afterthought.

Today is the death anniversary of the president's father. It was a death that allowed the torch of freedom and democracy to pass from mother to child. The child, though, has not grown and must need a prompter to say what must be said. But sometimes the prompter is out of order.