Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino is one dedicated man. His passion and commitment to following through his support for the Liberal Party’s senatorial bets is unmatched and unprecedented. Despite all the problems facing the nation, he still finds the time to travel around the country campaigning for his “Team PNoy” in the lead up to mid-term elections in May 2013. Surprisingly, majority of the Filipino people seem to think there is nothing wrong with what he is doing. The taxpayers are happy to shoulder the costs of the President joining these rallies. At one point, it was reported that his visit to Maguindanao required heavy security. BS Aquino is one lucky guy, indeed.
The President in good campaign form
Despite his shameless and relentless pursuit of his goal to dominate Congress with his people, his popularity with the Filipino people hasn’t waned — if we are to believe the result of the polls conducted by survey firms owned and operated by his family and friends. However, his critics are once again using the term hypocritical in describing the President. It’s a known fact that he was one of those who kept accusing former President Gloria Arroyo of trying to control Congress during her term but lo and behold, BS Aquino is now very blatant in admitting he wants people who share his “agendas” to win the seats in the senate.
It is not normal to be too averse to the presence of opposition. He doesn’t want to encourage healthy debate. At his age, he should realize by now that everyone, including himself needs to listen to opposing views as well lest he gets trapped into believing he has a monopoly on great ideas. In fact, BS Aquino is far from being the only one who can move the country forward.
There are also reports saying that most of the Liberal Party’s senatorial candidates themselves do not even bother to join him on the campaign trail anymore. Oddly enough, the President who is not even a candidate is present in most of the rallies. These senatorial candidates are presumptuous and could be correct in thinking that the Aquino magic is all they need to win the election. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of campaigns where candidates don’t even show their faces in campaign rallies anymore. They use substitutes like their mother or children to represent them instead. All BS Aquino has to do is to tell his fans who to vote for and it’s “all good”.
Of course we cannot give all the credit for the LP’s success in the campaign to BS Aquino alone. He certainly cannot achieve the mind conditioning of the voters single-handedly. The survey firms help with the name recall by listing the candidates most likely to win. The Liberal Party used the same tactic in the 2010 Presidential elections. They know the voters all too well. This is usually how it seems to work: survey firms hired by the candidates will publish reports showing who is popular and then gullible voters will vote for the candidate who are popular according to the survey firms.
Most Filipino voters would always vote for the popular candidate because they don’t want to be associated with a losing candidate. Their rationale is not based on logic but on hiya. As in nakakahiya kung matalo yung kandidato, dito na lang tayo sa siguradong panalo. Loosely translated: It would be a shame to vote for candidate who will lose anyway, let’s just vote for a sure winner.
Never mind if the candidate has a real platform, if he is not popular with the public, don’t vote for him.
This is precisely the reason why a lot of individuals who otherwise have in mind and heart the right solutions and hold genuine concern for the country do not bother to run for public office. They know that if they do not have the right name, or the endorsement of an influential public figure and if they don’t have the funds to pay off survey firms, they will simply lose.
It’s one thing for the highest officer in the land to abandon his day-to-day duties in Malacañang and attend sorties but it’s quite another for the general public to tolerate his wrong priorities. It says a lot about the Filipino people’s indifference and apathy to the real issues plaguing the nation. They don’t realize that by allowing BS Aquino to get away with avoiding his duties, they are also being a party to his negligence. Since he is not preparing for the worst case scenario like the occasional flash flooding during the monsoon season or even the impending nuclear attack by North Korea, the risk of Filipinos suffering unimaginable hardship is very high. Scenes from the apocalyptic filmThe Road come to mind.
For more than halfway through his term in office, BS Aquino has shown that he is only good at reacting to disasters both natural and man-made. He has not been proactive in preventing Filipinos from living in harms-way. He seems unaware of the old adage “prevention is better than the cure”. So if the President continues to campaign or prioritize doing something that won’t even help the country move forward, such as persecuting his political enemies, we will see repeats of what has happened in the past – pointless deaths and business interruptions – when disaster strikes.
The following is a basic outline of BS Aquino’s first four years in office (See also table below):
2010: Honeymoon Period/Persecute Corona and GMA
In 2010, BS Aquino was still in his honeymoon period. His followers were barking, “give him a break, it’s his honeymoon period” every time he committed gaffes. He put all government spending on hold including those that were already approved by the previous administration. Technically there was no accomplishment in his first year. This was the same year the Mendoza hostage crisis occurred resulting in the deaths of 8 tourists from Hong Kong. Despite that, he went on to campaign for the resignation of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and badmouthing GMA, blaming her for all the ills in the land.
2011: Persecute Corona and GMA
In 2011, BS Aquino continued unsuccessfully in working towards the resignation of Corona by badmouthing him in public. He also continued the persecution of GMA in public with the help of various media organizations. Towards the second half of that year, when there was no sign that Corona was going to resign, his government worked towards strong-arming members of congress into signing the impeachment cases against Corona and preventing GMA from getting medical treatment abroad.
2012: Persecute Corona and GMA
In 2012, the whole country was focused on the impeachment trial of Corona in most of the first half of the year. BS Aquino’s minions worked hard in conducting media campaigns against Corona for five months, which included but was not limited to releasing black propaganda, lies and violating the law in obtaining false evidence against the respondent. His government has also been pursuing GMA on the side with cases that have been either dropped or dismissed eventually. Unfortunately, BS Aquino still wants to keep her in detention probably until his term ends.
2013: Campaign for May elections/Persecute GMA
In 2013, as mentioned earlier, BS Aquino has devoted the first half of the year in campaigning for his senatorial bets. What’s in store for BS Aquino in the next half of 2013? Well sadly, it would be more of the same blame game. The real issues like obtaining self-sufficiency for our country in terms of food production, job creation, power and energy sources and our sovereignty has to take a back seat until BS Aquino finally secures his hold on Congress. It seems his instructions from the top, whoever is orchestrating his every move, is for him to work hard in putting all the right people in the right place. Who knows? Maybe BS Aquino prefers them to be indebted…I mean “beholden” to the Aquino family.
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