Credit-grabbing government

Headline: “Palace: ‘No coincidence’ PH had best Olympic performance under Duterte” (News, 8/9/21).

Time and again, this administration has shown shameless credit-grabbing as its most consistent activity, to cosmeticize its lackluster performance in the last five years in office.

The article “The Olympics have shown that Filipino society supports only those who’ve succeeded”

(Pop!, 7/29/21), belies Palace loudspeaker Harry Roque’s claim. Olympian Eumir Marcial also lamented the lack of government support as he and others struggled to make do with the measly finances they got.

In a report aired by CNN, Hidilyn Diaz was shown training with improvised weights (bags with weights attached to a pole) in Malaysia as she prepared for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Before that, she had to ask private companies for financial support. She was also was tagged by then presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo as part of a so-called ouster plot against President Duterte.

It is ironic that despite the humongous intelligence funds this government has, it had been fed with erroneous information.

And now that Diaz has won the first ever gold for the country by a Filipino Olympian, Roque is unabashedly claiming credit for it on behalf of his master by the Pasig. Nothing is more preposterous than that.

RAMON MAYUGA
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