Life can be so unfair. Some people will hate you just for being ugly. Then again, some people will still hate you just for being beautiful. But if you believe the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) report on the satisfaction rating of President Noynoy Aquino’s first 100 days in office, you can be forgiven for thinking that Noynoy Aquino is quite possibly the luckiest man alive, his looks notwithstanding.
There are many things in life that just seem so unreal. Things like the Pyramids of Egypt or Stonehenge in the UK can make you go, “I cannot believe it is man-made!” But SWS surveys in the Philippines never leave us with any doubt about the endless possibilities of what men can do and this includes the likely manipulation of “trust” ratings to favour one person or another.
The results of the SWS survey “had 71% of the respondents saying they were satisfied with Mr. Aquino’s performance, compared to the 11% who said otherwise, for a net satisfaction score of +60.” Just to stress, only 11% were unsatisfied with P-Noy’s performance according to SWS. This despite all the gaffes and errors P-Noy committed since Day One in office, most of which even a close Aquino ally, Professor Winnie Monsod, had pointed out.
The survey results seem so unreal so it is either the survey firm did not ask the right people or the Filipinos who participated in it definitely have very, very low expectation issues. Either way, they are both undesirable thoughts. Let’s not forget to mention that the SWS is owned and operated by friends and family members of P-Noy. I guess we can expect a high “trust” rating until his last day in office in 2016 even when majority of the Filipino people become increasingly dissatisfied with his performance.
But in addition to reacting with disbelief when you see the Pyramids or the Stonehenge or the result of SWS “trust” surveys on P-Noy, you may also ask the question: What was the point of it, really? Indeed, it seems to me that building the Pyramids, the Stonehenge site, or conducting SWS surveys for P-Noy were all exercises motivated by vanity. It just simply fails to provide a satisfying answer to the perennial question: So What?
The most vocal and informed Filipino citizens on the Net tend to be the most frustrated and anxious about P-Noy’s handling of the economy and some of the local issues that continue to derail his management of the country. Some issues like his final recommendations on the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) report particularly the slap on the wrist he gave his friend and Department of Interior and Local Government Undersecretary, Rico Puno for his incompetence in handling the bungled Mendoza Hostage Crisis on the 23rd of August 2010 and on being implicated on the jueteng scandal has disappointed many Filipinos and Hong Kong Chinese citizens alike.
P-Noy’s latest decision to grant amnesty to ex-military personnel and convicted mutineer Antonio Trillanes has sealed the tradition of management by impunity which has contributed to the lack of accountability in our public officials. What “hope” is there for a better tomorrow for the rest of the Filipino people? As has been pointed out in this blogsite over and over even before he was elected, P-Noy is part of the problem and not the solution to the woes of the Filipinos. It seems that some of the survey respondents don’t really have a clue what P-Noy stand for. They are like lemmings who routinely jump off cliffs for reasons unknown to mankind.
In some internet forums, his supporters always come out in his defence by saying, “He is only one man. He needs everyone’s cooperation to succeed.” It would have been better had they applied what they are saying to all the previous Philippine presidents. And in any case, cooperation need not be just blindly following P-Noy’s decisions. Cooperation also comes in the form of being vigilant in criticising his wrong decisions which can greatly affect the rest of the population. They also say that it is too early to criticize P-Noy. Well I say that it is too early to say that he is a success.
On his 100 days performance report, P-Noy spoke with a wisdom that can only come from someone with very little experience and a lot of arrogance. Like a little boy full of pride, he praised himself rather than acknowledge that he still has a lot of issues to resolve. When he spoke about our country’s problems and said “Nag-ugat ito sa isang gobyernong parang tatlong matsing na nagbingi-bingihan, nagbulag-bulagan, at gumawa ng sariling katotohanan,” he might as well have been talking about himself as well because he doesn’t really listen to what some people — his “boss”, according to him — have to say about his management style.
P-Noy just kept going on and on about working hard without yielding any meaningful results. He even takes credit for the accomplishments of the previous administration for the $430M Millennium Challenge Corp (MCC) grant, among other things. He is lucky indeed, for majority of Filipinos are the sort of people who are easily impressed by pomp and pageantry like Noynoy’s “wang-wang” grandstanding even when a lot of the bigger issues aren’t really being addressed.
He might have scored brownie points for his support of the RH Bill with some of his detractors but that will only translate into something if he sticks to his guns even under Catholic Church pressure bearing down on him.
P-Noy never fails to mention how he is so good at saving on funds. But no amount of saving from income generated from tax collection will be enough to build all the infrastructure and facilities to cater for a population that keeps on growing. Tax revenues is dependent on people having jobs. When people have no income, there will be no taxes to collect from them. It is that simple. There are quite a number of Filipinos who have been unproductive their whole lives and cannot break out of the cycle of poverty. So obviously, P-Noy needs to stimulate the private sector with fewer regulations to induce the sorts of investments that create more jobs for the Filipino people.
Even his promise of creating more schools with the emphasis on using the money he saved will not be enough to train people to help them become more entrepreneurial. Our manufacturing sector seems to be irreversibly descending a slippery slope and can no longer compete with China, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. Besides, he also needs to address the reality that it is in our cultural DNA to be less competitive than other ethnic groups a concept I explored in my previous blog. With P-Noy’s tendency to turn a blind eye to our own failures, Bloomberg.com may have been right when they predicted before the May 2010 elections that P-Noy may be bad for the economy.
Life can be so unfair. But when you are President Noynoy Aquino, everything seems so rosy particularly since he has friends and relatives who will greatly benefit from his impeccable public image — no matter what he does.
About the Author
ilda has written 65 stories on this site.
Ilda is agent provocateur. She wants to help people realise that things are not always what
Comments on “P-Noy’s first 100 days: “achievements” that fail the “So What” Test”
tsk tsk, white wash surveys…
[Reply]
tsk tsk tsk…paano ba ang buhay natin, lokohan nalang ba?
[Reply]
UP nn grad Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 7:58 am
President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino continues to demonstrate what he believes is the reason he has been elected president — to demonstrate the Pinoy-in-Pilipinas desire that ang mga
kaibigan ay mas importante 
kaysa prinsipyo. Ubod ng bait talaga si Ignoy sa kaniyang mga kaibigan at mga klasmeyts, ma-aasahan talaga 
.
The facts can be bent, decisions can be made without
regards for facts.
But friends are friends forever!!!
[Reply]
Like mother, like son….from beginning to end….
God bless the Philippines…
[Reply]
Aegis-Judex Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Aye, ibarra. Verily, it can be said that we as a nation are screwed.
[Reply]
The Philippines is created as an example of what other countries ought NOT to emulate.
Resistance is futile.
[Reply]
I always believe in the statement of our hero, Jose Rizal, that states: ” There are no tyrants. Where there are no slaves.” We had been under almost 300 years of Spanish Colonization. Yet, we did not unite ourselves; to throw the colonizers out. Same condition now. Opportunist politicians, like Noynoy Aquino; lie to us. Deceived us thru improbable Surveys. Hired people to heap praises of them. Inspite of the fact, we are seing the contrary. Do we complain? Do we do something about it? No sir, we allow ourselves to be abused, robbed of our tax money and dignities; etc…A vibrant country would had thrown out its leader, like Noynoy Aquino; a long time ago. I have no iota of respect of the man. He is fake. Even his soul and spirit are fake.
[Reply]
“Indeed, it seems to me that building the Pyramids, the Stonehenge site, or conducting SWS surveys for P-Noy were all exercises motivated by vanity.”
The SWS results, if true, are disturbing. If he has a very high rating, it means the Filipinos have accepted mediocrity, laziness, incompetence and indecisiveness as all right. What then makes a bad leader if Noynoy gets a high rating? You mean this country, with so many intelligent and good people can only do this good?
That is so disturbing.
[Reply]
anonymous bosch Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Nothing to be surprised of, as this is the squatter area of the world.
[Reply]
This is the sad and bad reality of Philippine politics. Most of the people are frustrated and helpless. Here in San Fernando, La Union, (The Ortega Clan Haven for more than 50 years), citizens are afraid to talk about politics. They just avoid government topics. I am doing some sort of brainstorming using the AP visions in our Barangay meetings but I often hear “wala din namang mangyayari”.
It seems that what the government meant by “cooperation” is that one should keep his mouth shout and just follow what the leaders want.
[Reply]
ilda Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
@Mel
I don’t know why people are so afraid to speak out. They really think that to cooperate means to not complain. This is why our public officials get away with everything!
Thanks for disseminating AP information. I’m glad you are able to access AP with no problem because I myself had a hard time the whole morning today. I thought it was down or something. I can only imagine that only regular readers will have the patience to put up with the constant error message that keeps coming up when you click on the links. Thanks for being patient with the site.
[Reply]
Why is everyone surprised when a crisis happens and the Philippines, instead of using the crisis to change the personality based culture of the politics in this country, to a more responsible republican form we revert to the worst kind of personality based system.
We are still ruled by a kingdom of families and an autocratic form of state.
We have a lot of history to do still.
Now a blanket amnesty for mutineers from out of the blue.
While there is tumult in the global economy we seem to go backward.
[Reply]
i just received a very disturbing tsismis from a padre’s labandera. days ago she heard the kapari-an talking about how confident (still, in spite the recent issues about their rift) the padres are that Abnoy will make this country great because of one fact – Abnoy is single!!! they said daw that single individuals (like them LOL) are better leaders because they have no other commitments but their promise to the people & they are not prone to practice corruption because they are only feeding their own mouths. i do not know if i should laugh or cry with this kind of stupid reasoning. but if this is the kind of rationale for the vote of confidence to Abnoy we are getting from so-called leaders of our society, we are definitely in hell!!!
[Reply]
ilda Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
@pale
If they are so concerned about feeding other people’s mouth, then why are they against the RH bill?!? Their rationale is still palpak!!! What an idiot!
[Reply]
palebluedot_ Reply:
October 14th, 2010 at 1:23 am
exactly, ilda! nakakaloka nga because their rationale is too absurd, i doubt if they themselves understood it and its effects to the issues these days.
they seem to be riding a roundabout on these postulates:
postulate1: singlehood = reduction on the number of mouths to feed
postulate 2: reduced number of mouths to feed = greatness (in the case of Abnoy & the Church celibates)
postulate 3: RH bill = reduction on the number of mouths to feed
postulate 4: RH bill = immoral
postulate 5: reduction on the number of mouths to feed = immoral
so, greatness = immoral?
ambot lang…
[Reply]
Ilda,
I’m surprised his “doubled pork for Tongressmen” move wasn’t mentioned. I was quite surprised how the double pork budget didn’t seem to stir the people when it was the biggest thing when GMA was in position. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
[Reply]
ilda Reply:
October 14th, 2010 at 12:59 am
@Bokyo
Sometimes I forget to mention all the gaffes because there are too many! He is looking out for his barkada in the Congress because he used to be one of them
[Reply]
Thanks for another enjoyable post – your writing, not necessarily the subject matter! I, too, could not access the site almost all day today. Is there some kind of site maintenance going on daily? Or could it be some yellow-hued hackers trying to take you guys down?
Anyway, I don’t know what other kapalpakan Noy can still do yet (but he’s good at coming up with more things to botch that we didn’t think of, I’ll grant him that!). He’s pretty much exhausted the immediate possibilities in his first hundred days, most of which you already mentioned. And still, there has been no freaking direction from this administration as to what good future it envisions for the country. No one is inspired to do anything to improve things by the actions of Noy and co., seeing that the top echelon are all in it for themselves, their kith and their kin.
To highlight a few: Yep, there’s the infamous, horribly mismanaged (to put it very mildly) hostage-taking crisis, followed by the equally disastrous aftermath reaction, followed then by the current shameless whitewash of the IIRC recommendations – what a waste of taxpayers’ money to have funded the committee, only to trash their report – Malacañang could’ve made up their own ‘report’ – ‘twould’ve been equally credible as their ‘revised’ IIRC report, no?
Not to mention the unreal awarding of a blanket amnesty for the soldiers who blatantly broke the basic code of the military and mutineed – and go scot-free for it, no expression of remorse or a promise not to repeat such actions notwithstanding? But then, with Trillanes in the Senate, Noy gets another ally for his administration!
Yes, this government has kept its promise of having ‘transparency’ in its moves – but not in the way we thought; it’s not that they inform us of what they do because it’s right when applicable – it’s just that we all can see so clearly through their machinations to their real purpose in being in government – to protect their own interests, the rest of the country be damned.
What if the arrogance and incompetence so overtly displayed were purely incidental? What if this administration just really doesn’t give a rat’s freaking ass about what the rest of the nation thinks or says, and has brought cynicism to a higher plane, and will persist in carrying on as they have and only do all they can to protect the interests of, and only of, the KKK – Kamag-anak, Kaklase at Kaibigan?