Trending—if the few remaining Yellowists can still really muster up a trend—in social media pages favoring President Noynoy Aquino is a lament about why the Philippine leader always gets blamed for everything, while no one blames France’s Francois Hollande for the terrorist attacks in Paris. This ghoulish attempt to make propaganda hay out of the grim killings in France should not go unnoticed, least of all because there is simply no basis for comparing the two leaders.
But let’s hear it as Rock Drilon, kin of Senate President Franklin Drilon, wrote it: “Do the French blame their president for the barbaric massacre by ISIS last Friday wherein 129 lives were lost for not making France secure enough from terrorist attack [sic]? Are there calls for his resignation, rumors of a coup d’etat? Because here, everything, including calamities, gets blamed on President Aquino!”
Talk about your apples and oranges—or yellow lemons, really, to continue with the fruit analogy. First of all, as I recall, Hollande blockaded Paris and sealed of his entire country’s borders within an hour after the first ISIS attacks.
As online media commentator and critic JP Fenix pointed out, no one is blaming Aquino for calamities. “We blame him for his action [and lack of it] after the calamities,” Fenix said. “Big difference.”
The sad truth about the current Aquino presidency is that, whenever a crisis situation develops—whether it be a hostage-taking or a devastating typhoon—Aquino’s first response is invariably to disappear from view. And when he is most needed (like upon the arrival of the bodies of the 44 slain Special Action Force troopers or the anniversary of Super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’), Aquino always finds a way to be somewhere else far away.
Of course, only someone surnamed Drilon would even entertain the idea that Aquino is the “blamee” when he always takes on the role of “blamer.” Aquino’s go-to and long-standing response has always been to blame other people, whether they be local government officials, previous presidencies like those of Ferdinand Marcos and Gloria Arroyo and even the media, when he is accused of not getting the job done, calamity or no.
This is what led Aquino to say this in his speech before the Apec CEO forum yesterday: “If 10 years ago, if my predecessor had done what we are doing now, I can only imagine where the Filipinos would be.”
So the next time you hear about poor Noynoy, always being blamed, think about it: The man has never taken any blame for anything, much less apologized for anything—maybe that’s why his fans call him the best President this country ever had.
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Speaking of what happened in France, I pray that nothing of the sort happens here, especially this week, when we play host to 19 heads of state and their delegations for the Apec summit. But if something of the sort takes place, I fear that Aquino will definitely prove to be the polar opposite of what Hollande is, for all the world to see.
After all, our homegrown Muslim fundamentalist-bandits, also known as the Abu Sayyaf Group, have already pledged allegiance to ISIS and pulled off their share of atrocious attacks on foreigners and Filipinos alike for many years. While the authorities have promised that they have taken every measure possible to prevent Paris-like attacks from happening this week, the Apec summit must seem like a perfect opportunity for the local bandits to show their solidarity with their comrades-in-arms in Europe and the Middle East.
Right now, even as the Apec summit is being held, the Abu Sayyaf still holds three foreigners and one Filipino hostage and is demanding P1 billion each in ransom for their release. And while the Abu Sayyaf is our most high-profile problem, they’re not even our only security and peace and order problem.
From everything to the chaos on the streets to the explosion of petty and serious crimes, most Filipinos believe that there is a real breakdown in peace and order. Furthermore, they think that this President and the people who want to replace him in the elections next year simply do not have the capability or the inclination to get tough on crime.
Who is going to protect us from people who violate the law with utter impunity? Not this President—and not, apparently, anyone else on the horizon.
Perhaps many have forgotten, but the rise of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as an attractive presidential candidate—never mind if he has repeatedly rejected calls for him to run—is explained by nothing else except the widely held perception that he would bust all criminal syndicates and punish those who violate the law. With Duterte insisting he is not running, some people still hold out the slimmest of hopes that he will change his mind—a testament to the desire of most Filipinos for someone, anyone, to save them from lawlessness and criminality.
That didn’t happen in Aquino’s watch. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen in anyone else’s.