How Peping and family feel about Noy's admin

UPDATE: What’s the latest between President Noynoy Aquino and his uncle Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr.? Are they still talking to each other?

Get a hint from a piece written days ago by Cojuangco himself. Here it goes:

*      *      *

“IT IS DANGEROUS if not fatal to believe that winning an election — or even more especially, losing one – also bestows a monopoly on virtue and good intentions.

“I used to be more widely known as the bayaw of Ninoy. Then as the husband of Tingting. Then as the brother of President Cory. Then as the dad of Mikee. And now, of course, as the uncle of President Aquino.

“I also know that my name is one of those inevitably mentioned whenever critics of our family bring up their well-worn smear word as their all-purpose demolition device – Kamaganak Inc. The notion of a Kamaganak Inc. is as revolting and repulsive to me as it is to everyone, and even more so to all of our family members who have had to bear this unfair and unfounded burden that comes with the territory of having a President in the family. And now, two Presidents.

“The fact is that we Filipinos overwhelmingly elected Cory’s only son because we want her courage and honesty to continue guiding our leaders in governing the country, regardless of the qualifications, experience, or abilities of her senator child. Voting him in was a resounding rejection of the corruption of Gloria and her allies, and a very clear declaration that we have had enough of the dishonesty, deception, and duplicity through Gloria’s remaining appointees or her anointed successors.

*      *      *

“THE FILIPINOS also decisively proclaimed their distaste for naked partisan politics, emphatically rejecting unacceptable candidates of the Liberal Party, including Mar Roxas for Vice President – something that the Liberals prematurely crowed over as a ‘done deal’ when for a brief period, he enjoyed better projected poll numbers than Noynoy Aquino.

“So again, I have been singled out as the convenient scapegoat for the embarrassing losses of the Liberal Party. If their candidate for Vice President cannot hang on to the coattails of the overwhelming landslide victory of his running mate, why of course, this can only be the work of none other but that wily and crafty Peping. Undoubtedly, he orchestrated and deployed all his political resources and allies to ensure his nephew’s win, and the spectacular and stunning triumph of the well-known Cory loyalist, Jojo Binay, over the hapless, shocked, and overmatched Mister Palengke and Mister Tricycle.

“When the expected crush for political appointments materialized immediately after the election, I did not sponsor anyone for any high-ranking position in the new administration. But instead of being hailed for not meddling in the frenzy of new appointments, I was characterized as being ‘outside the loop,’ toxic and persona non grata.

“Ironically, it has been the losing Liberal Party candidates who have feverishly inserted themselves at the feasting trough, cleverly gulling the winning President into balatos and consuelo de bobos, unmindful and spiteful of their wholesale rejection by the electorate.

*      *      *

“I HAVE tried to avoid any public back and forth about the continuous and well manipulated defamation designed to keep me distant from and unwholesome for his image.

“But my silence has only emboldened the desperate and the greedy, as the end of the one-year ban on the appointment of losing candidates approaches.

“Recently, columns, articles, and programs have renewed the concoctions and fabrications at my expense. One has me leading a ‘United Opposition as the advisor and convenor of political forces disgruntled by PNoy’s performance.’ Another claims outright that I have refurbished my LABAN movement for no foreseeable purpose than to fight the current administration.

“The innuendoes have become shrill enough to openly announce that I resent being ignored by the core groups of President Aquino. That I am being coldly treated by the Presidential sisters. That the President and his sisters distance themselves from me in political matters, especially in appointments to the government.

*      *      *

“ONE miserably misleading report even floated the unthinkable ‘prospect’ of my meeting with Gloria for a proposed coalition as an actual event that is being passed around as fact instead of fantasy.

 “That my entire direct family worked non-stop for the President’s election is undeniable and on record. In particular, my daughter Mikee, along with her husband Dodot, toiled with my wife Tingting and all my other children throughout the campaign. Tirelessly. Indefatigably. And as it has turned out, thanklessly as well.

“There is no rift between the President and myself, in spite of the accurate statements in the press that none of our followers who worked endlessly for his election have been rewarded with choice government positions. All of the volunteers in my various reform movements labored freely without remuneration, and unmotivated by gaining any government position or reward, unlike so many in the President’s own Liberal Party who had to be reimbursed extravagantly before they would even begin to ‘support’ President Aquino.

“We have an Abad as the secretary of the DBM, an Abad as Secretary to the PMS, an Abad as Vice Chairman of the House committee on appropriations, and an Abad as chief of staff of the Secretary of Finance… The Abad nepotism has so metastasized through the body of this administration that they have even managed to be included in the plunder charges recently filed against Gloria and her known galamays — these Abads have, faster than one can scream ‘magkakamag-anak bang lahat ito?’ now quickly snatched the label of ‘Kamaganak Inc.’ for their own families’ use – shamelessly, insensitively, and defiantly.

(FDP: We cut the piece here for lack of space. The full text can be read at ManilaMail.com, my website.)

*      *      *

FOLLOWUP: Access past POSTSCRIPTs at www.manila mail.com. Like POSTSCRIPT on www.facebook.com/manilamail. Or follow @FDPascual on Twitter. E-mail feedback to [email protected]