Ricochet

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
09 January 2011

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – In the last quarter survey of SWS, it was revealed that 93% of the Filipinos tossed to face the year 2011 with the positive outlook. And the President was herding a positive note that “there was a basis” for this.

We Filipinos have been known for our resiliency. When we were tired of the oppression for more than twenty years, we gathered in the street and restored freedom we used to enjoy. In May 2010, we allowed our resiliency to overrule money-controlled ballots ending the modern-day tyrant in the guise of a petite Lady, aborting the resurrection of the pro-poor imaged actor turned politician, trashing the business-propelled team of a real estate magnate, and killing other self-serving political platforms to surface.

Those were epiphanies to stalemates so far; we are in our best moves again! Sadly though, we are the pawns in this political match, matter we Filipinos refuse to realize.

Shortly before the New Year’s Eve, the President announced that we had a surplus of P500 million last November when a deficit of P6 billion was expected. It the reports fed to the President was correct, he was then right in claiming that there was indeed a strong basis for Filipinos to face 2011 with merriment.

In his Executive Order 18, the president scrapped agencies created by the former president that includes Luzon Urban Beltway, the office of the North Luzon Growth Quadrangle Area, Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, Mindanao Economic Development Council, Minerals Development Council, Office of the Presidential Adviser on New Government Center, Bicol River Basin Watershed Management Project, Office of External Affairs and Office of the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change.

EO 18 may sound positive to his colleagues but to the majority, it was a twist expected of him. His mother got rid of those rags that seemed to sanitize political trash bin of the Palace; he’s his mother’s son.

Moreover, scrapping these agencies sounds political than economic by orientation – we all know that. When he announced we had a surplus, he knows we can have more if he scraps firmly all the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) including thirty-six government-owned-and-controlled-corporations (GOCCs) that cost more than half a billion pesos in annual subsidy. Congressmen must give up personal gains by penning bills seeking their closure; these companies unfortunately consume material slice of public funds that primarily comes from the taxes of the impoverished working class and remittances of the OFWs.

When he announced there was a surplus, he knows more than creating the Truth Commission without re-thinking the merit it has in the Arroyo-controlled Supreme Court; more than the inactivity of the graft cases docketed against her and her cohorts in the Ombudsman; more than the reverberation consequential to her imprudence.

When he announced the surplus, he knows we can have more if he streamlines the executive branch sans fear of criticisms: scrap redundant departments, forge departments with overlapping roles and functions, trash agencies that do not perform and deliver. If he does, the whole country and even the world, would praise him for being a leader, not a politician. The leader goes selflessly well along with his team; the politician goes selfishly well ahead of his team.

Certainly, the Filipino community wants a leader, not a politician.

When the President announced he has a surplus, he knows more than this because he is an economist. Yet, there is one thing concealed behind the surplus: Filipinos are homeless in their own land, jobless despite publicly announced job opportunities; behind this surplus shows a canvass of pastel-coated reality, reality that Filipinos suffer, undoubtedly. The President and his Team should take it from reality, not from the numbers produced by paid-by-and-intended-for-whom surveys. Numbers don’t work; reality does!

If the President is serious in re-building the ailing Republic, he should forget future political plans and alliances. Yes, he should forget quenching the thirst of his political allies in order to slake the dehydration and tick mark the agenda of the Filipino people effective immediately.

Cory prosecuted the Marcoses; Erap planned to prosecute Fidel. Gloria prosecuted Erap; Noynoy wants to prosecute Gloria. The pattern is a definition by itself: ricochet!

Noynoy should make the iron hot by striking. If Aquino fails the people, he should expect one after the cycle!