A ‘look-back’ on Aquino’s vows in last 4 years

Before President Aquino tries and takes advantage of the January lull to somehow sway the public into thinking that he has done a lot of good in 2013, or maybe force the public into looking ahead to 2014, I just want to make sure that Malacañang is aware of the following.

In 2013, the biggest pork barrel scam ever was exposed, and the evidence of the connections that its mastermind, Janet Napoles, has with the Aquino administration is overwhelming.

Mr. Aquino promised at the end of 2012 that by 2013 the Philippines would be rice self-sufficient. We are now in 2014.

I’m sure everyone in Malacañang is aware that the indices of poverty, corruption, smuggling, power rates and joblessness—even the death toll from Supertyphoon “Yolanda”—are continually going up under the present Aquino presidency.

Speaking of Yolanda, the President and his men should be embarrassed by the mishandling of relief and rescue operations in the wake of Yolanda. Two months after the typhoon, more than a thousand bodies of Yolanda victims remained unburied, while many more were still uncollected. Aside from the delay in the distribution of government relief aid, there was Mr. Aquino’s blaming of the victims for the destruction. A respected journalist described the state of disarray best: “There is no leadership, there is no government, there is no civil defense in the Philippines.”

Also, billions of pesos were wasted during Mr. Aquino’s presidency—given either to bogus nongovernment organizations or to senators in consideration for impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona’s conviction.

Meanwhile, the shenanigans of the President’s very limited KKK (kaibigan, kaklase, kabarilan) circle are glossed over or covered up. Selective justice in the Philippines has never been so bad.

How many times has President Aquino stood in front of Filipinos and made a vow that he broke?

Mr. Aquino promised to abolish the pork barrel system and reach a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front. These promises are only two of the many other vows that he has yet to fulfill.

A year after the Atimonan massacre, the victims and their families have yet to see justice; the same is true in the Maguindanao massacre. Mr. Aquino also vowed that justice will be served in those two

massacres.

It seems that President Aquino is already forgetting about them just like he has forgotten the victims of Typhoon “Pablo” and the Bohol earthquake.

I wonder if Mr. Aquino will also forget all the Cabinet members and his appointees who quit on him and his administration. It seems one by one, they’re abandoning him.

No one wants to work for and be associated with Mr. Aquino. This may be an exaggerated statement, but it is never a good sign when that many people abandon an administration.

Half-way through his term, Mr. Aquino’s list of failures is getting longer.

—CAROLYN CHASE,

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