Noynoy in a blaming mood again

Congratulations are in order for Chester Cokaliong for steering his flagship company, Cokaliong Shipping Lines, Inc., to the heights of success and market leadership it is enjoying today, on the occasion of the company's 24th anniversary on Sunday, December 8.

Cokaliong built the company literally from scratch 24 years ago, surviving and persevering through the initial hiccups and challenges that would have discouraged other men of lesser strength and resolve. But Chester is not a man who surrenders. He aims for something, he doesn't give up until he gets it.

But you do not have to believe this testimonial because I am a polluted source, Chester being a dear friend. You can check out for yourself if you like. Go to the pier where his ships are based either early in the morning or early in the evening and you will find him there.

Chester is probably the only shipowner who personally (as in he himself) waits for his boats to arrive safe and sound and then sees to it that they leave clean and on time. Cleanliness, by the way, is a hallmark of his style. The man goes on board each of his ships daily with white gloves and swipes anywhere to detect dirt.

It is no wonder then that his ships have consistently won awards for efficiency and cleanliness. Taking a trip on his ships is like staying in a hotel, literally. But I will not say anything more. Just check things out for yourself and be impressed.

I would also like to congratulate the other members of the Cokaliong family who provide very efficient and able support to the leadership of Chester. And to the staff and employees without whose dedication to the policies laid out by Chester, the company probably would have been just another run-of-the-mill operation.

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A few weeks ago, several people embarked on an unofficial campaign to stop others from engaging in what they have described as "the blame game." The blame game, of course, refers to the sweeping criticisms heaped on the Aquino administration for the way it handled the response to the ravages of supertyphoon Yolanda.

Using motherhood statements to the effect that criticisms at this time of crisis is unproductive, they asked everyone to rally instead behind efforts to provide relief and then rehabilitation to the victims in the affected areas.

It is difficult, naturally, to argue against motherhood statements because they are statements that are precisely made and meant to sound nice and convincing. The problem with motherhood statements is that they are often far removed from the reality of the ground.

Aside from that, however, there was also something about the motherhood statements that called on the positive side of people that fell just sort of being realistic, and therefore honest and well-intended. The exhortations for a stop to "the blame game" forgot one very crucial element -- the greatest blamer himself.

Those who called for a stop to "the blame game" masqueraded themselves as well-meaning, and many would have fallen for the ruse except that by omitting to call on the greatest blamer to himself stop blaming, they only exposed who they really worked for, which is for no other than the greatest blamer himself.

And who is the greatest blamer? Why, no other than Noynoy Aquino himself, of course. After Yolanda leveled Tacloban, he flew there to distribute a few bottles of water before the cameras and then started firing away at the local officials of Tacloban for failing to respond promptly.

Many were aghast at this insensitivity. Was Noynoy blind? Did he not see that Yolanda made sure that the local government could no longer function? Was he not aware that every responder was himself either killed or had someone in his family dead?

Next Noynoy sacked the police chief in the region for giving a high estimate of casualties. Was the police chief responsible for the casualties that he merely estimated? Since when has the giving of estimates been a crime?

Weeks before Yolanda struck, a massive earthquake also struck the Visayas. Again Noynoy visited the stricken area to shake a few hands and then flew right out of the country to South Korea where, in a public speech he blamed his predecessor Gloria Arroyo for all the troubles in the Philippines.

Then, only last Tuesday, at a forum in Pasay City, he again launched into his patented "blame game" and scolded the media for its negative reporting instead of writing positively about government efforts in the post-Yolanda scene.

Noynoy is truly clueless. While there are positive stories in the post-Yolanda scene, most of them about the heart-warming foreign response to the tragedy, many are simply overwhelmed by the gross inefficiency and corruption you see in the government side of things. If  Noynoy can't help blaming, why not blame himself?