There are many lessons to be learned from the five-day visit of the Holy Father, Pope Francis to the Philippines, in his journey of mercy and compassion.
The most important lesson for me was the call to action for government to address the problem of poverty. Pope Francis seemed to be telling the Aquino administration: What have you done for the poor, and what will you do for the poor?
Lackeys of Malacañang, specifically Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman, readily say that the Aquino administration has the conditional cash transfer program worth billions of pesos for some 4.4 million Filipinos below the poverty line.
But improving the lot of the poor doesn’t mean doling out P1,500 monthly. It just makes them mendicants who feel beholden to the administration. To improve their lot, they must have jobs. This is why I believe that addressing unemployment is key.
Poverty is not the problem of government alone. It is also society’s problem.
If Pope Francis’ message did not resonate with President Aquino, and if we do not see it for the next 18 months until he steps down, we can only lament — “sayang.”
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The Holy Father hit a sensitive note among many Filipinos, especially among the poor that as good Catholics, they should not breed like rabbits, an animal known to easily proliferate.
The pope said this to journalists on board Shepherd One, the Philippine Airlines flight that brought the Supreme Pontiff back to Rome.
While defending the Church’s stand against contraception, the Holy Father admonished Catholics against breeding like rabbits. This means they must resort to family planning the natural way.
Having a big family is something that the poor consider as a gift from God, especially among the farmers who plow the fields every day and the fishermen who have to wake up at drawn.
To them, the more children they have, the better.
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The deafening silence of Malacañang on the need to have a credible election in 2016 is difficult to understand. Clean elections could be President Aquino’s legacy when he steps down in June 2016.
I wonder thus why the palace is so silent about Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes’ love affair with Smartmatic.
We have seen the many things that have gone wrong with Smartmatic’s precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines. So why hang on to them?
Malacanang should be concerned that these machines could subvert the will of the people. Does Mr. Aquino want this to be his legacy?
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I never doubted that Vice President Jojo Binay will remain as the man to beat in the 2016 presidential race until election day.
In the latest survey commissioned by concerned businessmen with Laylo Research Strategies, Binay would still be the runaway winner in a five-way, four-way and a two-way fight scenarios in the 2016 polls.
All these despite the orchestrated demolition job against him by the Liberal Party using Senators Antonio Trillanes and Alan Peter Cayetano as members of the Senate Yellow-Ribbon subcommittee headed by Senator Koko Pimentel.
The same survey shows that even against Senator Grace Poe, Binay would still get 42 percent as opposed to Poe’s 33 percent, with 24 percent of the respondents remaining undecided.
In a Binay-versus-Roxas scenario, the margin has widened to a 29-point lead with Binay obtaining 45 percent versus Roxas’ 16 percent with a high 39 percent saying that they were undecided.
It is interesting to note that in a five-cornered fight, Binay would still be in the lead with 36 percent, Grace Poe with 24 percent, Senator Miriam Santiago with 16 percent, Manila City Mayor Erap Estrada with 12 percent, and Roxas placing last with 10 percent. Only two percent remained undecided.
My gulay, Roxas also placed last in a four-way fight, gaining one percent to 11 percent if Erap backed out and Binay grabbing the lead at 39 percent. In this scenario, Grace Poe could take second lead at 26 percent, and Santiago third at 17 percent. At least 7 percent of the respondents remain undecided.
Another interesting finding by the surveyors is that many respondents have already made up their minds about Binay. This, to my mind, is crucial in the wake of the administration’s attempt to pour all its resources into the bid of Roxas, the presumptive administration candidate for 2016.
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The recommendation of Senate Yellow-Ribbon sub-committee chairman Koko Pimentel to Yellow Ribbon chairman Senator TG Guingona that Makati Mayor JunJun Binay and six other be cited for contempt for not attending the hearings of the sub-committee against the Vice President presents an interesting legal problem. This may even reach the Supreme Court.
Letter’s were sent to Pimentel in spite of a standing request by the lawyer of Mayor Binay and other Makati officials for the Yellow-Ribbon sub-committee to provide advance questions to be asked on the alleged overpriced parking Makati building and other alleged anomalies. The Binay lawyer partly based his arguments on the case of former Socio-Economic Secretary Romulo Neri against the committee.
Pimentel, however, argued that in the case of Neri, it was a question of executive privilege, which the Binay issue is not.
So should witnesses and resource persons be given advance questions so that they can prepare?
From my own point of view, since Senate hearings are not matters of litigation as in criminal and civil cases, those appearing before the Senate should know what they are up against. It would be unfair for witnesses and resources persons to be asked anything by senators.