For someone wanting so badly to leave a legacy when he steps down from office, President Benigno Aquino III is doing a great job at making us remember him for a specific episode.
According to the latest The Standard Poll, 46 percent of voters believe Mr. Aquino must be held accountable for the deaths of 44 members of the Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January last year.
The botched operation was supposed to have neutralized two terrorists —one died, too, that day, and the other was killed months later.
Hearings were conducted by both Houses of Congress immediately after the killings, but despite the circus and the strong emotions that attended the probe, there has not been any committee report submitted for further action.
As a result, 67 percent of biometrically-registered voters nationwide interviewed by this newspaper’s resident pollster say they are not satisfied with the hearings and would want them to continue.
Voters from all geographical locations shared the general opinion, with 70 percent in Metro Manila, 62 percent in North and Central Luzon, 71 percent in South Luzon and Bicol, 68 percent in the Visayas, and 66 percent in Mindanao—as well as voters from urban and rural areas—saying they want the probe to continue.
They did continue, two days after the country marked the first year anniversary of the probe. Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who was in jail at the time of the original hearings, sought the reopening because he said he had more questions to ask. The next question is how the probe is going to be concluded. What will it say, and what are the processes that it would set in motion?
What the sentiments of the people tell us is that Mr. Aquino has, contrary to what he would want us to believe, not addressed the issue satisfactorily. His role in the ill-fated operation, his subsequent demeanor and apparent attempts of the administration at a cover up make a mockery of the straight path he has often invoked.
One would think that the public would be too distracted by the coming elections to remember the Mamasapano massacre and the President’s inadequate response to it. And yet, the numbers tell us that voters remember—and remember well.
They want their president to answer questions, and in the entire year that has passed, he has done such a bad job at responding to them.
How the President has acted with regard to Mamasapano sums up his entire attitude about everything else during his six-year term.
What a way to go.