‘Bloodthirsty’ column

WE HAVE enormous respect for the wisdom of Amando Doronila. We recognize the weight of his words, the importance of his opinions and the clarity of expression which qualifies him as the bellwether of today’s Filipino journalists. We may not always agree with what he writes but nevertheless his writings deserve our high esteem.

One of those rare occasions in which we disagree with him was his column “Bloodthirsty,” (Inquirer, 3/25/11), an adjective with which he described the administration of President Benigno Aquino III as it pursues its drive against corruption. The majority of the Filipino people are fed up with the humongous corruption scandals during the nine years when this country was ruled by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We believed that the honorable gentleman was among the most vocal critics of the erstwhile president due to those scandals that occurred during her watch, where she and her husband were widely believed to have been involved but which Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez failed to prevent and investigate and whom she exonerated instead.

With Arroyo as President and Gutierrez as the ombudsman, bad governance and opaqueness were the order of the day. The people were left in limbo as midnight deals and questionable transactions happened one after the other, causing the government to lose billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money, and resulting in bad service and lost opportunities.

With Arroyo now no longer able to wield power and most of her loyal supporters gone, Gutierrez remains the only obstacle on the straight path and the padlock that blocks all attempts to open the closet where the skeletons of the past are kept.

This should be brought to a closure and the impeachment of the ombudsman is the key.

The vote in the House to impeach Gutierrez was a staggering 212 for and 46 against with four abstentions. Nothing could have been more categorical than that. Even in Arroyo’s heyday she was not able to muster that large a majority despite the largesse in brown envelopes she was believed to have distributed to buy or to bribe people.

That vote was more than two-thirds of the whole House, representative of the majority of the population who have distrusted Arroyo as president as shown by the surveys during her watch. We believe this confirmation by Congress of President Aquino’s drive to fight corruption will be reflected in the next survey.

Webster defined bloodthirsty as “eager to hurt or kill, murderous or very cruel.” The definition does not fit this administration although it is eager to remove all the vestiges of the inglorious recent past blocking the fight against corruption.

It is the people who are longing for blood. They are the President’s boss and he only heeds their command. They are the ones who have suffered too long. It is high time they were relieved of the burden they have borne for so long.

—RAMON MAYUGA,
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