Aquino, no time for the poor

It now appears that the Aquino administration is indeed neglecting the victims of Typhoon “Pablo.” The spotlight is now on the young students among these victims: They are starting the new school year in tents provided by Unicef, using school materials that reportedly have been “scavenged.”

The Aquino administration has been quick in appropriating funds for big infrastructure projects, yet in areas affected by Pablo the children can’t even have the much-needed facilities and materials for their basic education. It must be Unicef providing the tents. Malacañang can’t even chip in for a tent?

President Aquino can afford to have in tow 50-60 delegates when he goes visiting a nice foreign land, spending P50 million in the process. Yet, he can’t spare a tent for schoolchildren?

There is a wide disconnect between the poor victims of Pablo and Malacañang. One can say that the schools in areas hardest hit by Pablo are overcrowded, except that they’re not schools, they are tents.

President Aquino had all the time to travel to other countries and around the Philippines to campaign for his candidates; and he immediately found time to personally check out the situation at the upscale Serendra condominium-apartments in The Fort, Taguig, after an explosion. But he has no time to visit typhoon victims in poor rural areas and to attend to their needs, or even just the needs of their schoolchildren?

—WILL ANDERS,

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