EDITORIAL - Veto and blame

Now it can be told. In her column in the Philippine Star last Wednesday, November 20, Marichu Villanueva wrote that way back in 2011, President Aquino vetoed a portion of the General Appropriations Act for that year that would have provided funds for disaster risk reduction.

As a result, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council failed in its mandate to beef up preparations for typhoons and other natural calamities such as Yolanda which caused so much havoc in the Visayas, particularly Tacloban.

In his veto message, Aquino reportedly said the Calamity Fund should be used by the NDRRMC only for actual calamities and cautioned against its use on pre-disaster activities like preparation of relocation sites and the training of personnel in coping directly with disasters.

The disclosure of this presidential veto is significant in light of reports that Aquino has ordered the officials of Tacloban investigated, and prosecuted if warranted, for their alleged failure to prepare for Yolanda. How can he blame Tacloban officials for being unprepared if he himself vetoed funds for preparedness?

Instead of blaming the local officials of Tacloban, Aquino should blame himself. Not only did he refuse to fund disaster preparedness, he embarked on other priorities which have nothing at all to do with the task at hand, which is to help Yolanda's victims.

Aquino's obsession with casualty figures, for instance, manifests his burning desire to avoid getting his watch tainted by one of the country's worse natural disasters in terms of human lives lost. So obsessed is Aquino in this, and so eager are his men to please him, that there are reports of shaving casualty figures.

But that is just one of the many side stories that have surfaced regarding how the Aquino government is handling this great humanitarian crisis. The most repugnant is still his bid to blame the catastrophe on local officials of Tacloban who, by no accident, simply happen to be his political enemies.

There is a growing number of people, some well-meaning but most just wanting to appear so, who are calling for an end to what they call as "the blame game." The only way for it to happen is if they direct their call first to the country's greatest blamer, who also just happens to be the biggest culprit of all.