Blaming Arroyo for worsening MRT problems

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at President Aquino’s new attempts to blame his nemesis, former president Gloria Arroyo, for the mess at the Metro Rail Transit. I was tempted to laugh because one would think that Mr. Aquino could not have been serious and was merely joking by rehashing for the nth time an old, worn-out line blaming Arroyo practically for just everything that came to his mind. But seeing he was being serious, I felt like crying at the realization that the leader of our country resorts to such cheap shots to exculpate himself and his administration from their failures.

Mr. Aquino should be reminded that Arroyo has not been the president for more than half a decade running. During the period, he has been the president, which means fixing the problems of MRT, whether these came about before or during his presidency, has been his responsibility for the past decade.

But it is quite clear that Mr. Aquino ignored the problems at MRT and decided to take a look at them only after they became so bad that at one time a train flew off the railtrack and resulted not only in damage to property but also in injuries to persons. In other words, Mr. Aquino did not only ignore the problems at MRT, he allowed the state of MRT to worsen in the more than five years he has been president.

—LEX ORTEGA, [email protected]