We cannot yet comment on the 6th and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III because by the time he is speaking in Congress… it would be way past our deadlines and I’m not about to second guess what topics the President would be saying before Congress. For sure, he would give a five-year report card of his accomplishments, some real and some imagined. When I say real, I’m sure he would talk about the latest law that he signed… the Philippine Competition Act or the so-called Anti-Trust Law. I already congratulated P-Noy about this in my last column.
For sure, the Filipino people would want to know what kind of legacy P-Noy will leave after we elect a new President in 2016. Already, the majority of his critics have written about how his backbone program Daang Matuwid was a complete failure because his battle cry, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” turned out to be a big disappointment.
Why not go around and see the slums or squatter areas of the key cities of Metro Manila or Metro Cebu or Davao. You will also see a lot of the poor people who apparently are losing their hope for a better country. Why are they still poor? Using the logic of Daang Matuwid… it’s because corruption is still very much around. We mistakenly thought that the son of Pres. Cory Aquino will have turned things around for the Philippines. Alas… it was not to be!
If P-Noy is to be faulted… he just doesn’t see the corruption happening right under his nose. I still remember the time when I would come to Manila and go to Quezon City using the Metro Rail Transit (MRT). Apparently, five years under the Aquino regime, this once upon a-time premier mass transit system in Metro Manila was running so smoothly without any hitches. But when Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar publicly exposed the corruption in the MRT, no one believed his words because the Aquino propaganda machinery made sure that this corrupt deal was kept under wraps. They even painted the Czech Ambassador looking like a fool.
Then two years ago, the MRT trains started to falter and then one train lost its brakes and got derailed at the end of the line in Taft Avenue. Now only a few trains are running and we see in our Facebook photos of the kilometric lines of irate commuters looking like sheep, suffering without a whimper! The latest news on this case is that former MRT General Manager Al Vitangcol is in hot water with the Office of the Ombudsman. By the filing of this case, the Czech Ambassador has been vindicated.
But to the embarrassment of P-Noy’s Daang Matuwid, the Ombudsman did not charge Department of Transportation & Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya Jr. even if his signature appears in this corrupt deal. How could the Office of the Ombudsman commit this mistake? Well, just a few days ago, the same Office of the Ombudsman cleared no less than P-Noy himself from any culpability in the untimely deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who were massacred and killed in that infamous Mamasapano massacre in Maguindanao last Jan. 25.
Yet the same Ombudsman will be filing charges of grave misconduct, graft and usurpation of official functions under Art. 177 of the Revised Penal Code against former PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima and former SAF Commander Getulio Napeñas and nine other officials of the PNP. What the Filipino people are seeing here is that, under PNoy’s Daang Matuwid program, the small fry gets charged while the Office of the Ombudsman protects the big fish. While Allan Purisima is a big enough fish, however, the bigger fish… P-Noy got away scot-free!
As we all know, the ex-PNP Chief was suspended by the Ombudsman for corruption. So why did he get himself involved in Oplan Exodus? Come now, do you think that the ex-PNP Chief would get himself involved in Oplan Exodus unless someone higher ordered him to be part of this plan? Of course many Filipinos know that P-Noy is a buddy-buddy of Alan Purisima, so it had to be the President who asked Purisima to be on board the Oplan Exodus debacle. The Office of the Ombudsman could have seen this, or was the Office of the Ombudsman showing its real color?
Whatever P-Noy said in his SONA yesterday, only the Filipino people and history will judge his presidency. When the EDSA Revolt booted out the conjugal Marcos dictatorship, it was due to a serious lack of justice. Alas, 29 years later, justice is still denied the Filipino people and our best proof is the Maguindanao massacre, which six years later is still languishing in our slow courts! On dispensing justice alone, the Aquino presidency is a failure. This is something P-Noy cannot brag in his SONA!
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Kudos to the staff and management of the Philippine STAR on the occasion of its 29 years of fearless reporting of the truth. More power to the Philippine STAR!
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Email: vsbobita@mo-pzcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com