#NasaanAngPangulo has been a trending topic among Filipinos all over the world on social media, asking where Philippine President Benigno Aquino was, and why he was not at Villamor Airbase last Thursday, Jan. 29 to welcome and honor the remains of the 44 Special Action Force commandos brutally killed in a botched mission against terrorists in Maguindanao.
As the very emotional ceremony was taking place in Villamor Airbase with widows and orphans seeing their dead family members in caskets flown from Maguindanao, the Commander-in-Chief of the Philippines was at an inauguration of a car plant in Laguna. Malacañang said attending the ceremony in Villamor was not on the president’s schedule.
Many kababayans in America, even among those who voted for and are loyal supporters of PNoy have been vocal about their disappointment over Aquino’s sense of priorities. This, after Aquino was also a no-show at Jennifer Laude’s funeral — the transgender Filipina who was allegedly killed by US serviceman Joseph Pemberton — because Aquino said he does not go to funerals of people he does not know.
This, after the president’s much-publicized appearances in recent showbiz functions like the wedding of celebrity couple Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, and a full-length interview with Vice Ganda.
Many Fil-Ams could not help but compare Aquino with US Presidents, who would cancel their previously arranged schedules, just to give the due honor and respect to the fallen service members.
After all, these brave and patriotic men and women are the true heroes, who sacrificed their lives so we could be free and safe.
As part of the #NasaanAngPangulo conversation among Filipinos in the past days, pictures and articles about Obama were shared on social media. The US Commander-in-Chief reportedly canceled a visit to Interstate Moving Services in Springfield, Va., just outside of Washington, to talk about fuel-efficiency standards for work trucks, buses, and other heavy-duty vehicles. Instead, National Journal reported that he met industry leaders behind closed doors at the White House on another day.
Obama chose to go to Dover Air Force Base, to meet the returned bodies of fallen troops, and to privately and personally console the bereaved families of the 30 Americans that died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2011.
I can only image that the scene, as described in the report, was as solemn and painful as the one in Villamor, except that the Philippine Commander-in-Chief was not there to meet with his officers who sacrificed their lives for their country.
In Dover, Obama led a delegation of senior administration leaders and Pentagon and military officials to salute the flag-draped caskets of the troops who died in the worst single-day loss of the long Afghan war. The National Journal chronicled that then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen led the military delegation, the Defense Department said, which also included the senior military and civilian leadership of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. Yes, the fallen heroes were that important.
The report said that when Obama arrived at the base, he then boarded each of the two C-17 aircrafts that were used to bring the bodies home to pay his respects. After that, the president met with approximately 250 family members and fellow servicemen and women of the soldiers for about 70 minutes to offer his condolences. He was reportedly accompanied by Panetta, Mullen, and Adm. William McRaven, the leader of the US Special Operations Command.
As the National Journal explained, the base at Dover is the central conduit for fallen Americans. President Obama had previously gone there in October 2009 to pay respects to 15 troops and three Drug Enforcement Administration operatives killed during a particularly bloody stretch of the war.
Aquino, however, chose not to be a part of the ceremony in Villamor.
However, as ABS-CBN North America News Bureau Chief Paul Henson reported, President Aquino attended the necrological services for the Special Action Force agents slain in Maguindanao, a day after he was criticized for his absence at the arrival honors. It was then that the families poured out their grief and their appeal for justice during the emotional service.
The global conversation continues with important questions begging serious and honest answers: why the operation turned into a deadly 12-hour clash with Muslim rebels and claimed the lives of the 44 SAF commandoes; if Aquino was on top of it as Commander-in-Chief; why the DILG Secretary was made to be out of the loop when this operation was supposed to be within his jurisdiction; what could have been done differently to avert this tragedy and failure in strategy.
However, the disappointment and even disillusionment that many kababayans are now expressing suggest that Aquino has a lot to learn about how to be a “Father” to the Filipino people, especially during moments of grief, loss and injustice.
Ironic, indeed, because he lost his own father in a very tragic death. Also ironic because as he grieved for his father, and later his mother, the Filipino people — who he did not know personally — were all there to sympathize with him and his family, and even catapulted him to presidency.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
