AND so it begins.
Only a few days after the Aquino-Binay inauguration and already, a bevy of activities has ensued – the appointment of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. as the head of the “truth commission,” graft charges filed vs Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo by militant groups, GMA and son filing for Charter Change, a review of midnight appointees by President Aquino – with the very first memorandum issued by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., declaring that all non-career executive service positions be vacated by June 30 and that services of contractual employees will be expiring on July 31.
P-Noy and GMA are carefully calculating and countering each other’s moves, as if in a chess game. This is perhaps, one of the most exciting periods in Philippine politics.
P-Noy was dead serious when he uttered these words during his inaugural speech, “To those who talk about reconciliation, if they mean that they would like us to simply forget about the wrongs that they have committed in the past, we have this to say: there can be no reconciliation without justice. When we allow crimes to go unpunished, we give consent to their occurring over and over again. Secretary de Lima, you have your marching orders. Begin the process of providing true and complete justice for all.”
Congresswoman Arroyo is obviously prepared for what’s in store. Her strategies continue to unfold on a day-to-day, beginning from the time when she started making midnight appointments during the final months of her term as president.
Everyone waits with bated breath for the next move.
P-Noy’s former collagues at the Senate expressed their confidence that he will be able to “walk the talk.”
As succinctly put by Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., “Now, he has to walk the talk brushing aside thistles, thorns and booby traps on the way to lift people from the mire of poverty. Noy has made his talk. Let’s now see him walk towards liberating our people from poverty, oppression, extrajudicial killings, corruption and criminality. We the people should help him achieve his goals.”
It may seem like a personal battle between P-Noy and GMA, but this is the kind of political warfare that Filipinos have been clamoring for – a fight for change, towards what Pres. Aquino describes as ‘landas na matuwid.’
With P-Noy at the helm, the new chief executive needs all the help he can get – not just from his administration, but from his kababayans, whom he clearly regards as the boss of him. (AJPress)
( www.asianjournal.com )
( Published July 3, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A12 )
