WHEN Noynoy Aquino blunted a Tacloban businessman’s complaint that he had been threatened by looters at the height of the Yolanda disaster, by declaring, “You are still alive, aren’t you?” – or words to that effect – one could excuse that and attribute it to a bad presidential temper in the face of thousands of Filipino lives lost. After all, the businessman was lucky to be alive when so many others were dead.
When Aquino dismissed the idea of attending the wake of murdered transgender, Jennifer Laude, by saying, “In general, I don’t attend wakes of people I don’t know. I’m not comfortable in trying to condole with people who don’t know me.” – that could be attributed to naiveté and lack of prudence, a trait common among those born rich and unused to dealing with strangers. However, it did not necessarily mean heartlessness.
But for a president to avoid meeting the citizens of his country in order to avoid listening to their complaints in connection with a great catastrophe, thus denying them his personal morale support – that is a case of failed leadership, a case of moral cowardice.
Indeed, as a leader, Benigno S. Aquino III, president of the Republic of the Philippines, titular head of over 100 million Filipinos, son of a martyr and of a heroine of the People Power Revolution, the one individual expected to be the exemplar of prudence, wisdom, strength and courage, and the logical source of inspiration for the citizenry, has been weighed and found wanting.
Not willing to personally deal with the irate residents of Tacloban on the occasion of the first anniversary of the scourge of typhoon Yolanda, Aquino scratched the disaster’s Ground Zero from his itinerary and went to Guiuan, Samar, instead.
Even DILG Secretary Mar Roxas – a man who is obsessed with becoming president – and DND Secretary Voltaire Gazmin avoided Tacloban, choosing instead the more hospitable climes of Tanauan and Ormoc, Leyte. But then, having seen how Roxas and Gazmin played the Keystone Kops in the Yolanda disaster, who really cared for their presence, anyway?
This is not to say that Aquino should not have gone to Guiuan, and Roxas and Gazmin should not have visited Tanauan and Ormoc. The people of these communities also deserved their leaders’ presence. But those localities are close enough to each other by helicopter or light plane or speeding vehicular convoy to have enabled Aquino, Roxas and Gazmin to attend the ceremonies in all four places in one day, if they really wanted to.
But they did not want to. They purposely avoided Tacloban. Apparently, they didn’t know how to deal with the thousands of miserable, grief-stricken, irate victims of Yolanda who felt that the government had not done enough to provide them with the relief and the rehabilitation extolled in the press releases.
It was so reminiscent of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who, early in her term, always made it a point to announce her visits to the US, the better for FilAms to sing hosannas to her, and how, during the latter part of her tenure, she slipped in and out of America almost incognito, to avoid a hostile reception.
Let me be very clear that I do not think it was right for the Romualdezes to have roused the people of Tacloban and to have incited them to demonstrate against a visiting president, no matter how much they grieved their loss of loved ones and earthly possessions. If they did not think much of the person, they should, at least, have respected the position.
But even if there was the possibility of a demonstration, it was also wrong for Aquino not to bravely, calmly face it the way a true leader should.
Perhaps it was too much to expect Noynoy Aquino to be as courageous as his father, Ninoy, who, in spite of warnings of threats to his life, declared that the Filipino was worth dying for and bravely stepped out to his death.
No, not everyone can be as brave as Ninoy and we have no right to expect that kind of courage from the son. But neither did we expect a cowardly cop-out. – specially, not from a president of the country.
No matter what his battery of apologists and spin masters say, and no matter how wrong the Taclobanons were for making this president feel unwelcome, there can be no arguing the demands of leadership. Leadership requires courage in the face of threats, strength when others are weakening, and the capacity to inspire when hopes are dimming.
If Noynoy Aquino still fancies himself a leader of his people, he is deluding himself. He just happens to still wield power that enables him to have his way in many things, whether right or wrong. But any tyrant can do that.
It would be grossly unfair to say that Aquino’s nearly five years in office have been a complete failure. To quote verbatim one Aquino believer in reaction to one of my rather critical pieces:
“what is with you? pnoy not performing? you got blinders, kid. marcos performance acknowledged — over 20 years under his lone rule !! with people like you concocting innuendos and twisting facts, pnoy still managed to bring us to investment grade !! you wouldn’t acknowledge trhat (sic), would you?”
Of course we must acknowledge that, in the same way that Aquino should acknowledge that it was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who set the economic policies that enabled his economic managers to do what they did.
Credit must also be given to Aquino for succeeding in giving the impression of a determined campaign to cleanse the government of corruption and to create an environment more conducive to doing business. But it must also be acknowledged that the bright impression has dimmed in the last five years.
It must be acknowledged that Aquino has put the fear of God among his corrupt political enemies. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is languishing in “hospital arrest” and no president in recent memory has had a Chief Justice impeached and three senators incarcerated. But it must also be acknowledged that the dispensation of justice in this administration is selective – no better than in past administrations – and that Aquino has been quick to shield his friends and cabinet officials from prosecution, while allowing the DOJ, the Ombudsman, the COA and the Senate to proceed at a turtle’s pace on allegations of corruption on the part of his political allies.
It must be acknowledged that Aquino has competent officials in his cabinet like Secretaries Ramon Jimenez and Albert del Rosario of Tourism and Foreign Affairs, respectively. But that fact is spoiled by the incompetence of those entrusted with the transportation, agricultural, energy and peace and order needs of the country, and the failure to adequately address poverty and hunger in spite of economic growth..
It must be acknowledged that Aquino has not been accused or even been suspected of enriching himself in office. But it should also be acknowledged that corruption is still rampant and public funds have been used for corrupt purposes, such as bribing senators to impeach a sitting Chief Justice, and squirreling away billions for the 2016 presidential campaign in the guise of DAP and Bottom-Up Budgeting AKA Buying-Up Ballots.
And concerning Aquino’s campaign slogan, “Kung walang korap, walang mahirap,” the fact that there are still millions of mahirap in our country, as well as many who are korap, renders that phrase hollow and meaningless.
As my hardy fellow Warays put it concerning his avoidance of Tacloban: “We will survive without Aquino.” This could be echoed by the entire citizenry about Benigno S. Aquino III.
For Taclobanons like me, nothing more need be said about him except to wish him safe passage to his last days in office and a tenure best forgotten rather than remembered for its mediocrity and for high hopes and expectations unfulfilled.
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