Super Typhoon “Yolanda” survivors are calling Ping Lacson useless as rehabilitation czar (“Ping useless, say ‘Yolanda’ victims,” News, 5/17/14). That actually wasn’t quite as surprising as when President Aquino appointed him to that position a few months ago.
Indeed, rather than work to help the survivors, Lacson has chosen to spend most of his time blabbing about the pork barrel scam and the infamous list of those allegedly involved in it.
But the Yolanda survivors can’t blame Lacson more than they should blame President Aquino. Lacson’s appointment didn’t make sense from the very beginning but, true to the opportunist that he seemingly is, he didn’t turn down the position. So the bigger issue is President Aquino’s decision to appoint Lacson.
Nothing much has been “delivered” by Malacañang since Yolanda. Yes, there was the news about “finished” bunkhouses for survivor-families, which were “inspected” and approved by President Aquino, but which turned out to have been substandard.
So in a sense, the one who is useless is not Lacson but President Aquino himself, who can’t do anything significant for the Yolanda survivors except to appoint a useless bureaucrat to attend to them.
—MELLIE SANCHEZ,
melanie_sanchez1992@yahoo.com