You’re entitled to my opinion

In my opinion, P-Noy is making many mistakes or mistakes he should not be committing because he has become confused. He is bombarded with opinions thicker than the rain of shells that leveled Intramuros during the Battle of Manila in World War II!

The opinions P-Noy has to process and endure range in variety and worth as the colors and tattoo marks of the personalities airing them—from inane to insipid, from self-serving to highfalutin, from fantastic to harebrained. I imagine P-Noy wildly blinking, like he’s just been told he has to undergo root canal procedure, as he wonders which one he should take seriously. Here are some of the opinions fired at him, and what I imagine are his reactions and how I would verbalize them:

The President should come clean, tell us the truth about Mamasapano—from Senator Nancy.

Come clean? Shouldn’t she tell that to her own father, who has been adamantly evading clearing up one issue brought to the Senate, to come clean and tell the truth about the mysteries of Makati City Hall Building II, Ospital ng Makati, and the stupendous hacienda in Rosario, Batangas?

The President has been listening to whispers of only those near him or have access to him. He should also listen to opinions of those on the other side—Peping Cojuangco justifying his joining a group clamoring for P-Noy’s ouster.

The man is absolutely correct. None of us in the Palace solicit his opinions as none of us believe that his opinions would matter a fig to whatever goal we are trying to achieve. Worse, the Kamag-anak Inc. taint would be all over our effort.

Mr. Aquino should apologize for Mamasapano. He is surely the one who gave the order for the Special Action Force commandos to enter the village, get Marwan, resulting in 44 of them getting slaughtered. Not enough to apologize, punish the ones responsible. He should step down and give Filipinos a fresh start—and similar cries from a coterie of bishops.

Some of the names of the squawking bishops sound familiar. If I remember correctly, they were given the moniker “Pajero bishops” by the naughty media one administration ago—for reasons I don’t want to dwell on. Just a reminder that we know where they’re coming from. Anyway, their comments strike me as not only insane but also unchristian. Imagine calling for brutal retribution on those they believe are responsible for Mamasapano without knowing the complete facts! And to think we are in the period of Lent when churchmen should be talking of peace, repentance, humility, compassion and love.

Mr. Aquino does not sound presidential, his behavior is less than the high standard required of the Commander in Chief. The language he used in dumping blame on SAF chief Getulio Napeñas for Mamasapano was disappointing. He is the father of the nation and navigator of the ship on which we are all on board, and therefore our lives, including those of our families and the unborn, depend on him blah, blah, blah—FVR’s peroration before boarding a plane for another foreign jaunt

Nice to hear from FVR something intelligible other than his signature “Kaya natin ito” grunt. He faults me for unpresidential behavior, which puzzles me. I don’t jump up and down like a drunken chimpanzee as my standard greeting at a gathering! He mentions something about navigation; I don’t remember him buying one bloody boat for our Navy when he was president, given the huge fund generated by the sale of Fort Bonifacio for the military’s modernization. But I do remember the tons of money poured by him into the Centennial Whatchamacallit in Clark, which is now the biggest white elephant this side of Mount Arayat.

The meeting with religious leaders called by Mr. Aquino was a complete fiasco. It was billed as a prayer meeting, but as it turned out, it was more like a blame-throwing, self-exoneration session orchestrated by him. He blamed all he could blame for Mamasapano, including the cows that were killed in the crossfire of the battle. He indignantly claimed he was fooled by Napeñas about important details of the operation. That’s not what we want to hear, Mr. President, we want to hear about the role you played in this tragic event—chorus from radio/TV kumain-tators and omniscient tabloid columnists.

Heaping diatribes, asinine and irrational, and reproofs of similar variety against me over Mamasapano has become the new cottage industry. How will I respond to the braying mob? When at first I kept a discreet silence, critics demanded that I talk, give the real lowdown. When I decided to talk—not once but thrice—about the incident, I could barely duck the screaming fusillades (“Stop the blame game, tell us the truth!”). It’s not the truth they want to hear, it’s the untruths! That I was on top of the police operation, that I instructed the commanders not to coordinate with the military, that I knowingly sent 44 SAF men to certain death, and felt no compunction about it and no sorrow about their fate—and other hogwash in aid of getting attention.

P-Noy’s “responses” to attacks against him are purely imaginary on my part, but they reflect exactly my opinion, especially about wasting no more time listening to the bellyaches of certain bishops and kindred loose screws. The Mamasapano issue has been pounded to a pulp. I see nothing beneficial that can be derived from flogging a dead horse, except maybe expose the small minds of our politicians and some members of the clergy.

Force P-Noy to resign, or drive him out if he won’t? Come on, the only way you can force P-Noy to vacate the presidency with the backing of the people is if it can be discovered and proven that he stole from the national treasury, and hid his loot in Swiss banks and elsewhere. He is clean, man, clean. The House is itching to hold more hearings on Mamasapano. Certain congressmen just want to have more TV exposure. I say: Tama na, sobra na, tigilan na.

And that’s my opinion.

Mart del Rosario ([email protected]) is a retired advertising-PR consultant.