Wrong choice?

P-Noy should know, or should be informed, that more and more people who supported and voted for him in the last presidential elections are now having second thoughts if they made the right choice. After almost three years in office, his decisions and moves as President somehow indicate that he is not the kind of leader he has been pictured to be by his coterie of spin doctors and image builders when he was campaigning for President and when he already won and assumed office.

Apparently, he has been elected as President because of his reputation for integrity and honesty which are the traits people have been looking for in a leader, especially after experiencing years of lying, cheating and stealing during the past administrations. People really have high expectations that he will be true to his word, consistent in his actions, open and transparent in his dealings, fair and just to all, and most importantly, ready, willing and able to determine and to adopt measures promoting only the common good and not the interest of certain groups or sectors that usually creates disunity in the country. As he said when he assumed office, his role is to serve the people because “kayo ang boss ko.”

But it seems that this is not the P-Noy we elected as shown by the ensuing events since he assumed office. “Kayo ang boss ko” only went as far as the symbolic gesture of driving through traffic with no “wang-wang,” although motorists are still swept aside by arrogant presidential escorts to give way to the passing presidential entourage. By now, the “no wang wang” is no longer observed especially by government officials.

Also immediately noticeable is the selective application of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Former officials of the previous administration or even incumbent ones reputedly close to the past administrations and merely suspected of being involved in irregularities are publicly denounced and presumed guilty right away while still being investigated and/or under trial. But incumbent officials close to P-Noy and reported to be involved in some anomalies are not touched at all or presumed innocent until charged and found guilty. The most concrete example here is former SC Chief Justice Renato Corona who was publicly denounced by P-Noy as guilty of the impeachable offenses while the impeachment trial was still going on. Corona was appointed by past president Arroyo to the said position.

In the recent killing of 13 people in Atimonan, his spokesperson supposedly speaking for P-Noy immediately declared that it was a legitimate operation. Later on however P-Noy and his Justice Secretary denounced the killing before the media declaring that it was not a legitimate shootout. This apparent inconsistency not only confused the public but also left the NBI with no other alternative but to concur with the pronouncements of their “bosses” in Malacanang and the Justice Department, even if it is still investigating what really happened.

Then in the case of the RH law, P-Noy merely asked the members of Congress at the start to already vote on the bill according to the dictates of their conscience. Later on however, he actively and aggressively pushed for its passage already even sending three of his cabinet members to “lobby” in Congress. Some of the members of Congress admitted that they were indeed “pressured” to vote in favor of the bill or to just be absent from the session, otherwise their pork barrel will not be released. The conscience vote has apparently been greased with the fatty “pork.”

The most disturbing aspect in the passage of this bill which has never been denied is the existence of a foreign lobby with tremendous financial clout. Indeed this bill was originally formulated by these foreign lobbyists who are known advocates of population control by means of abortion disguised as contraception. In fact Melinda Gates who is actively involved in promoting abortion worldwide and whose foundation recently donated $400 million for this purpose was the first to congratulate P-Noy for the passage of this bill. The active involvement of the International conglomerates manufacturing these contraceptives which stand to earn billions in the purchase of their products somehow points to the existence of corruption in the enactment of this law.

Of course these are all speculations. Neither can it be said that P-Noy was corrupted here. Up to now a lot of people still believe in the repeated claim of his PR in Malacanang that he cannot be bought and that he is the number one fighter against graft and corruption in the government. In fact in a recent news report before he left for that P49 million trip to Davos, Switzerland on a speaking engagement, he reiterated once more that he will continue to fight corruption. This is well and good. But I hope that P-Noy is not only referring here to the corrupted. He should know that corruption involves not only the corrupted but also the corruptor. And this is clearly depicted in the passage of the RH bill where we all know the corrupted and the corruptor.

With all these developments, more and more people are beginning to cast doubt on P-Noy’s reputed integrity and honesty built up by his image makers. It seems that this reputation is more of form than substance. Let us hope P-Noy will be able to still prove during the rest of his term that the people who voted for him did not make a wrong choice.

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