It’s incredible, almost surreal. Not many moons ago, the man was the toast of the people, the darling of the press, who many thought was the epitome of propriety and righteousness, who would not cross the dividing line between what is acceptable and what is not. Today he looks worse than a tattered rag, kicked around like last week’s laundry by professional hecklers, inveterate bellyachers, and former admirers who, by a strange alchemy, have banded to make the demonizing ritual a cottage industry.
Anyare? What brought about President Aquino’s monumental transformation in public perception from a leader who could do no grave wrong to a bumbling mediocrity who could not absorb what way or idea is sensible and judicious or unwise and stupid even if you hammer it into his cranium? Why the big change in the people’s regard for him? Why his free fall from beloved to beleaguered?
I will not mince words: The President is mired in a Deep Abhorrent Problem (DAP) because he is not served well by those he relies upon for guidance and advice. I will grant that there’s nothing in his scholastic and professional records indicating that he is gifted with the intellect of a rocket scientist. But is there any indication anywhere
either that he is mentally challenged? My point is, in acting on matters that abound with legal and moral complexities, P-Noy, in the nature of things, is not only expected but also duty-bound to seek the views of those he considers his betters—and I am sure he does. Now, who are the, uh, nincompoops who advised and who continue to advise the President on what to do and say about the DAP?
The DAP is a terribly flawed program or project—in concept, in implementation, in damage-control effort to justify it after the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on its unconstitutionality. I condemn the DAP most passionately because it rides roughshod over values and principles I cherish most dearly—transparency, respect for established order, the majesty of the Constitution.
As an active member of the Philippine Constitution Association and a public servant for many years, I feel no little amount of sadness and frustration that the fundamental law of the land—which we all should hold inviolate, as we of the older generation have done—is given no more than perfunctory obeisance by the President. For this is what is meant by his avid foisting to the nation of his constitutionally infirm DAP and his staunch defense of it, warts and all.
The administration has switched to war mode. It has launched a counteroffensive captained by the President no less. The objective of the counteroffensive, presumably devised by Palace spinmasters, is to halt the further buildup of the condemnation of the DAP. But it is bound to fail. The war plan is devoid of strategic and tactical sense. It is devoid of sense, period. A major component of the plan is for the administration to ask the Supreme Court to reverse its unanimous ruling that the DAP is unconstitutional; it hopes to achieve this objective by making veiled threats against the Court and insulting the justices by telling them they have erred on the DAP case, the inference being that the justices are a bunch of ignoramuses not well acquainted with the Constitution.
Nor is this the only other thing funny about the P-Noy-captained DAP counteroffensive. The Captain has called on the people to wear yellow ribbons to show the justices that the people support a reversal of the Court’s 13-0 decision. Tragically, the call elicited, not compliance, but jokes and hilarity.
The PR offensive aimed to rescue the DAP from the depths of ignominy is awful, to say the least. Whoever thought of inveigling the President to go on TV and mouth that atrociously-written fighting speech is no PR pro; he is, no question, an arsonist. For instead of making the President appear statesmanlike by making him present the administration’s position on the DAP in cool, conciliatory and diplomatic rhetoric, thereby dousing the boiling issue and silencing the opposition hotheads, the author of the TV venture threw gasoline onto the burning coals of the DAP controversy, igniting a raging blaze which, at this point, looks like it has gotten out of control.
So where are we now? In deep trouble, clueless on how we can extricate ourselves from the clutches of the DAP brouhaha and turn our attention and energy to the more important and pressing problems of the nation.
Prices are rising, the traffic situation is worsening, the power supply is going, going, gone (on a rotating basis), the numbers of the poor are growing, joblessness is raging… The issues crying for priority attention are simply too numerous. That P-Noy has fallen from beloved to beleaguered is not one of them. That’s a problem of his and his advisers’ own making, let them solve it. Tayo? Let’s move on.
Gualberto B. Lumauig is a former governor and representative of the province of Ifugao.