“Governance by optics, where a year-long campaign called Utos, Sundin, Palakpak, as Unique Selling Propositions, has the audience left cold”
LAST Tuesday, I was the guest of Atty. Karen Jimeno in her Bilyonaryo TV program “At the Forefront.”
The main topic was supposed to be the “recycling” into largely decorative positions of two former Cabinet members, Christina Frasco and Antonia Loyzaga.
But the 28-minute program segued into many other issues, mainly the current problems arising from the Iran war, and how the administration is handling what PBbM’s factotums call a non-crisis.
Last Monday, the usually un-studied statement of the cantankerous Claire Castro came to fore again.
She said that the president would soon convene a crisis committee and asked media to just wait because the document (which could be an EO or an AO) creating the same was still being crafted.
What the …?
On Feb. 28 (okay, March 1 in our time zone), Israel, backed to the hilt by the US of A, bombed the supreme leader of Iran, along with family members and key Cabinet and military officials into smithereens.
Knowing how important the perennially troubled Middle East has been and knowing that our principal source of oil and gas is right smack in the theater of conflict, shouldn’t our president have immediately convened a “crisis committee?”, I asked in that interview.
“You do not need an EO for that, I said. All that is needed is for the president to gather officials equipped with enough brains to assess the situation and study our options in case the conflict worsens.
Mercifully but in characteristic procrastination, PBbM signed EO 114 declaring a “State of National Energy Emergency”, hours after senators fumed at the lack of urgency and clear inability of government to respond to a crisis like no other, one that would impact not only on the soaring prices of oil, but its non-availability, along with the downstream consequences on mobility to food and practically everything.
My high school English teacher would have described our London and New York-grown president as “pusillanimous,” a new word he would each week introduce to class.
I searched the net for an official definition of the adjective, and here is what I got:
Pusillanimous, adjective: “Destitute of that strength and firmness of mind which constitute courage, bravery and fortitude; being of weak courage; mean spirited; cowardly; applied to persons; as a pusillanimous prince”.
Pray tell, are we being led by one such pusillanimous person?
We segued into the president’s latest trust ratings, which in Pulse Asia’s Feb.27 to March 2 survey, registered a distrust of 44 versus a trust of 35, or a negative trust of 9 points.
“Trust is the single most important political commodity which a leader must possess, and when that is lost, it is most difficult to regain”, I said.
And to the country’s misfortune, conflict in the Middle East has become a test of strength, of character, of leadership, for a president who has a paucity of trust.
The signs are all over, from tepid reception to his presence in “ayuda” events, to “wa-pansin” from OFW’s returning from the war zone, even if he took the trouble of welcoming them back home at the airport.
It is almost as if the public has cancelled out the president from their lives.
That lack of trust is fortified when the president does characteristic “urong-sulong”, such as when he said he “will yet study” what to do with the excise tax after he himself asked Congress to rush his emergency authority.
The latest manifestation was when he recalled the LTFRB-announced decision to increase public transport fares owing to the hefty spike in diesel prices.
Wala ba kayong mga cellphone man lamang?
But then again, this was the same president who famously said in late 2024 that “impeaching his vice-president will not improve the life of a single Filipino”, and yet, 216 congressmen, led by his son, mismo, and his first cousin, otro, openly disobeyed his admonition.
And now, as we drown in the sea of troubles choked by the Strait of Hormuz, Bitrics, Terry, Joel, Abante et al., are in Take Two of their common desire to eliminate a strong contender for the 2028 elections, simply because the administration has no one to champion, except to shack up with the Left and the Pinks, in a Villarroyo 2.0, otherwise to be dubbed — “Marcoleni”.
As anti-climax to this article, now I realize why EO 110 came out just now.
Propagandists were yet pouring their creative juices into coming up with “memorable” acronym – UPLIFT or Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food and Transport.
Pilit na pilit.
Governance by optics, where a year-long campaign called Utos, Sundin, Palakpak, as Unique Selling Propositions, has the audience left cold.
Walang pumapalakpak!
