In defense of Aquino

President Aquino and his Cabinet have been the subject of bitter criticism in recent days: He is not focused, he is unfit to administer the country, he does not have the competence to take command in times of crises and disasters, as shown in the wake of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Let me say my piece in defense of the President.

1) After many, many long years, we have a President seriously fighting corruption. Not an easy choice: It is a fight against a system that has spread its roots deep into the very heart of the bureaucracy.

Lately, another obvious attempt to tarnish the President’s image was made by accusing some government officials of the shameful, unpatriotic and despicable crime of appropriating for themselves donated goods and funds. Only perverse souls are capable of concocting such fabrications. Who can do this among the members of his Cabinet? Interior Secretary Mar Roxas? Impossible! Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman? Unbelievable! Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin? Not a chance! Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez? Nonsense!

Critics, please be careful. You are in effect throwing dirt at the heroes of the hour: the thousands of volunteers and donors (and the ones leading them). God hates a false witness.

2) I do not understand why the public believed CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour more than they believed a local media person and the President, both of whom simply stated facts. We know very well that Cooper reported as he saw things, although not necessarily after an accurate situation analysis.

How many times should this be explained? This is the fact: We are a Third World country with meager logistics to spare. Cooper could have easily said that the presence and response of government remained inadequate at the time due to the massive destruction the supertyphoon caused, but that help would come soon. But he instead (deliberately or not) gave a report that was unfair to government.

For her part, Amanpour did not interview the President to put him down. She just wanted to know how the President would handle the crisis and whether his response to the crisis could define his presidency.

And the President was not blaming local government units. Far from it! He was not blaming anyone! Was it not obvious that he was doing his part to restore peace and order ASAP? Things are slowly going back to normal, and we see better days ahead of us. The delivery of relief assistance was slow, yes, initially. It was understandable. But it is now gathering momentum. Thanks to all who have extended—and continue to extend—a helping hand.

I understand the pain and suffering our people are going through. It is unfortunate, however, that we come from a poor country.

3) The Bible, in many instances, tells us that God wants us to respect authority. It is our duty to side with the authority and to pray for our President. God is neither happy to see us talk evil of P-Noy. Disrespecting P-Noy is not the mark of a Christian.

—WILBUR G. DEE, [email protected]