IN his final Easter message, President Benigno Aquino III makes an unmistakable pitch for the candidates of his ruling party ahead of crucial elections in May, urging Filipinos to “seek the light amidst the clouds of uncertainty” and “embrace the chance to establish an enduring mainstream of redemption” in the country, as it reaches another crossroads.
The pitch for continuity is clear. His “straight path” policy, the President says, has shown Filipinos “the path towards positive transformation.”
“We are weeding out the corrupt and strengthening our institutions, and through reform, we are freeing ourselves from poverty, towards a more just, more inclusive society,” he says.
The President uses the rhetoric of faith to drive home his message, calling on all to take a stand, “fearless and full of hope,” to “charge towards a brighter, more empowered tomorrow.”
“May the Almighty’s grace shine upon us, imbuing us with compassion, clarity, and the wisdom to discern what is right and just for our fellowmen,” he adds.
The words might have rung true, if the President lived by his own words.
Certainly, in his last six years in office, this President has not, as he has urged others to do, made amends for transgressions or learned from his mistakes.
One of his first acts in office, in fact, was to oversee a botched police rescue that resulted in the death of eight Chinese tourists, then absolve those responsible for the fiasco of any wrongdoing, damaging relations with Beijing and failing the first serious test of his leadership.
This failed leadership set a pattern for the rest of Mr. Aquino’s term. Under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign, he undermined the country’s democratic institutions to oust or jail his political opponents, while he turned a blind eye to nagging allegations of wrongdoing against his own Cabinet members.
This came to a head in the Mamasapano massacre of 44 police commandos last year, in a covert and poorly planned operation spearheaded by Mr. Aquino’s good friend, the chief of the national police, who was suspended at the time by the Office of the Ombudsman over corruption charges. True to form, Mr. Aquino washed his hands of any liability and even defended his good friend until doing so proved to be too politically costly.
In none of this did we ever see the compassion of which Mr. Aquino now speaks.
Lacking in basic human decency, this President famously told a survivor of super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’ who dared complain about the breakdown of law and order in his storm-ravaged city: “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
Certainly, there was no compassion in detaining his predecessor, an ailing woman, now 68 years old, and keeping her under hospital arrest for five years in a move that the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has condemned as a violation of international law.
Nor did we see any compassion from Mr. Aquino, when he vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have given lower- and middle-income wage earners—already among the most heavily taxed in Asia—some tax relief, despite his administration’s dismal record of underspending the money it has collected from them.
Emerging as we are from the dark tunnel of Mr. Aquino’s presidency, we suggest that the light to which he directs us is not the bright future he imagines, but the light of an oncoming locomotive—and the inevitable train wreck that will result from a continuation of his administration’s record of hubris, insensitivity, intellectual dishonesty and incompetence.