Teleconference histrionics all for show
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:18:00 07/05/2008
When there is a tragedy in his/her family, a person drops everything and rushes back home to find out why and how it happened, to mourn the loss, to share in the grief, to condole and unite with the family.
But Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her cohorts didn’t want to have any of it and proceeded with their expensive junket to the United States. All the “sharing” she did was to scream histrionically at Philippine Coast Guard officials via a teleconference. That was that. All for show. Meanwhile, her and her large entourage’s merriment continued. Many of them simply had to watch the Pacquiao-Diaz fight, come what may, criticisms and all.
She hobnobbed with a lame-duck American president as if a benediction from him would legitimize her questionable presidency. Like a star-struck “colegiala” [convent school girl], she eagerly chased Barack Obama for a meeting and reveled at being able to rub elbows with John McCain.
Not too long ago, Ms Arroyo glowingly predicted that the Philippines would become an Enchanted Kingdom at the end of her term in 2010. But with the way things are going—soaring oil prices, unstable food supply, economic woes, political ills, environmental degradation, widespread poverty—this country will be anything but a paradise founded on her self-delusion.
ROBIN PIGUE, Sycamore Tower, Dansalan Gardens, Mandaluyong City
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