Something more than confusion?

It was another "I’m sorry" coming from Malacañang–though not from the President herself–for the flip-flopping announcements over the August 29 sort-of-holiday. The clarification was almost as confusing as the announcements over the weekend, with Secretary Bunye citing a "gap" between broadcast and print media that caused the confusion (I will hold my tongue on this one). While he promised Malacañang will "try" to make holiday announcements in advance, he cautioned that "we don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner..." The corner, in truth, is where they belong–the traditional spot in the classroom for dunces. I’ll even supply the dunce caps.

Our news editor, my sparring partner Ichu Villanueva, lived up to the title of her column by providing some common sense to this business of holidays. She looked up all the appropriate Republic Acts and Executive Orders and came out with a list of holidays–regular and special–in her column last Tuesday. Our next regular holiday is All Saints’ Day on November 1, a Tuesday. Unless some political event or mood dictates otherwise, October 31 will be a special non-working day, or what we used to call a "sandwich" holiday. That should clear up any possible confusion.

Methinks though confusion may be the preferred state, so people will be so busy sifting through the words they won’t see the truth clearly. This may be the administration’s version of smoke and mirrors, like that fair-haired presidential defender saying "it’s her voice but it’s not the President speaking" or something like that. Pronouncements from Malacañang and its minions should be required study for creative writing students; they’ll really learn the power of words and how to use, misuse, abuse, confuse and obfuscate!

The President insisted in her "I will not resign" announcement that she can and will govern–but political survival is not governance, and staying in power is not governance. If I were to subscribe to the conspiracy theories floating around in abundance, last weekend’s holiday flip-flop was not a bumbling, bungling "gap" but a deliberate last-minute move to postpone certain congressional hearings and a potentially damaging lecture.

Either way, what Malacañang is doing is so bad for the country and for all of us struggling valiantly to cope with sky-high fuel prices and soaring costs. She’s just lucky that the alternative to her remaining in office is an even scarier spectre. Lucky for her, but I hope it will not mean disaster for us.