Can you believe this guy? It’s President BS Aquino’s last few days in office before stepping down on June 30, and yet he’s still doing damage to the country. He vetoed salary increases for our underpaid and hardworking nurses who should have received P25,000 salary. This is why many of our nurses are leaving to work in hospitals abroad. Three months ago, President Aquino vetoed a P2,000 hike in SSS pension for retired workers which, if it had been approved, could help cushion the high cost of living and medications of senior citizens.
Then, what did Noynoy do? He signed salary increases for SSS officials who are already highly paid.When asked during a TV interview what he would miss most when he leaves office, Aquino without batting an eyelash, said “my bosses.”
Oh yeah? He will miss screwing them. Except for his yellow crowd of supporters, the Filipino people won’t miss him at all. I don’t really enjoy bashing Pnoy, particularly since he’s on his way out but I can’t help it when he says the most outlandish things when he could have just kept quiet. For example, he flew to Sulu with a phalanx of presidential security guards and said he had at one time considered placing Sulu and Basilan under martial law because of the rampant lawlessness. So why didn’t he? Why only now when his days in office are numbered?
The President was in Sulu following the beheadings of two Canadian hostages by the kidnap-for- ransom Abu Sayyaf Group. Meanwhile, Jolo, Sulu Mayor Hussein Amin claimed some military officials are in cahoots with the ASG and even getting a share of the ransom money exacted from the victims’ relatives. There is loose talk of such connivance, but this is the first time a local government official has confirmed it during a television news interview. This is a serious allegation that must be looked, into although a Western Mindanao Command spokesman has denied Amin’s allegation.
On Wednesday last week, President Aquino, in a phone call to incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, offered his help. What “expertise” can PNoy give when he could not help himself during his six years of stumbling and bumbling along his “tuwid na daan”(straight path)? Aquino said Digong (in a rare moment of being polite?) accepted the help so that the incoming president, said BSA, won’t have to “reinvent the wheel.” PNoy has learned to say a lot of American catch phrases to pass himself off as a knowledgeable president when actually he’s clueless about the presidency.
What President coddles the likes of Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, and retains them in his Cabinet despite widespread allegations of incompetence and corruption? Abad could face charges for conceptualizing the illegal DAP funds that allotted millions of pesos to senators while Alcala has been indicted by the Ombudsman for the alleged smuggling of rice, garlic and the spike of other agricultural products in the market. Abaya of course is being blamed by the suffering commuters for the daily breakdown of the Metro Rail Transit and awarding its maintenance contract to an undercapitalized company without any track record in train repair servicing. The non-delivery of vehicle license plates by the Land Transportation Office—which is also under Abaya’s DoTC —should have been reason enough to sack the LP acting chairman and chief campaign fund raiser.
How will BS Aquino’s six-year presidency be remembered? Sadly, the ones that come to mind are the Mamasapano massacre of 44 PNP-SAF commandos by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Moro National Liberation Front siege of Zamboanga City, the slow relief and rehabilitation in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda, distribution of the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program funds, the push for the constitutionally flawed Bangsamoro Basic Law, the daily breakdown of the MRT and the “tanim bala” (bullet planting) in passengers’ baggage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), just to name a few.
Fortunately, we do not have to suffer another State of the Nation Address from Noynoy trumpeting his fictional accomplishments and paying tribute to his household help. Are we being too hard on PNoy? Not at all. He brought all this upon himself. You are what you have wrought, and you reap what you sow. These are just two quotes appropriate in summing up Aquino’s six years in power.