Covering PNoy's Failures
Covering up his failures
THREE years into his administration, President Aquino is still looking for scapegoats for his incompetence.
After doing precious little in the last few weeks but to inflame a perilous situation in Sabah, Mr. Aquino on Monday accused officials of the former administration of conniving with the Sultan of Sulu to create a crisis with our neighbors to the West.
In a manner we have now grown accustomed to, the President did so with no evidence —and no names, banking again on the power of innuendo and suggestion to ascribe guilt to parties other than his own bumbling officials.
In truth, it was a complete failure of intelligence that his administration was unable to monitor the movement of an armed contingent—more than 200 people—who sailed from Sulu to Sabah, Malaysia, to dramatize the historic claim of the Sulu sultanate to what is now a de facto Malaysian state.
If his vaunted intelligence forces were able to discern a hidden hand behind the Sulu crisis, why were they unable to nip it in the bud?
It was also a sign of extreme incompetence that a letter sent to his office by the sultan got lost, in the President’s own words, “in the bureaucratic maze” of the Palace.
But the President’s biggest failure in the Sabah crisis was completely of his own making. Fueled by his arrogance and the belief that he could do no wrong, Mr. Aquino misread the brewing crisis, disrespected the sultan, and failed to anticipate the violent and ultimately deadly outcome of the three-week-long standoff.
Three weeks offered plenty of time for a negotiated settlement, but Mr. Aquino squandered all that on ineffectual public appeals for the sultan to surrender to an unknown fate—or worse—to arrest and prosecution, hardly an attractive negotiating stance by any measure.
As more than 30 people lay dead from his failure to defuse the crisis, Mr. Aquino astounded us further with his defense of the Malaysian action—and his complete lack of concern for the fate of the Filipinos in Sabah. Then, he added an almost subservient appeal to the Malaysians to exercise restraint in their actions against our countrymen in Sabah.
What, we wonder, will Mr. Aquino blame on the Arroyo administration next? Will he blame his predecessor for his lack of tact and diplomacy that directly contributed to the bloodshed in Sabah? Or will Mr. Aquino blame former President Gloria Arroyo for his lack of a backbone when it comes to safeguarding the lives of Filipinos abroad?
At some point in his six-year term, not even his considerable propaganda machine will be able to hide Mr. Aquino’s ineptitude, and his callous use of the Arroyo bogeyman will finally be seen for what it is: a cover for what are clearly Mr. Aquino’s own miserable failures.
THREE years into his administration, President Aquino is still looking for scapegoats for his incompetence.
After doing precious little in the last few weeks but to inflame a perilous situation in Sabah, Mr. Aquino on Monday accused officials of the former administration of conniving with the Sultan of Sulu to create a crisis with our neighbors to the West.
In a manner we have now grown accustomed to, the President did so with no evidence —and no names, banking again on the power of innuendo and suggestion to ascribe guilt to parties other than his own bumbling officials.
In truth, it was a complete failure of intelligence that his administration was unable to monitor the movement of an armed contingent—more than 200 people—who sailed from Sulu to Sabah, Malaysia, to dramatize the historic claim of the Sulu sultanate to what is now a de facto Malaysian state.
If his vaunted intelligence forces were able to discern a hidden hand behind the Sulu crisis, why were they unable to nip it in the bud?
It was also a sign of extreme incompetence that a letter sent to his office by the sultan got lost, in the President’s own words, “in the bureaucratic maze” of the Palace.
But the President’s biggest failure in the Sabah crisis was completely of his own making. Fueled by his arrogance and the belief that he could do no wrong, Mr. Aquino misread the brewing crisis, disrespected the sultan, and failed to anticipate the violent and ultimately deadly outcome of the three-week-long standoff.
Three weeks offered plenty of time for a negotiated settlement, but Mr. Aquino squandered all that on ineffectual public appeals for the sultan to surrender to an unknown fate—or worse—to arrest and prosecution, hardly an attractive negotiating stance by any measure.
As more than 30 people lay dead from his failure to defuse the crisis, Mr. Aquino astounded us further with his defense of the Malaysian action—and his complete lack of concern for the fate of the Filipinos in Sabah. Then, he added an almost subservient appeal to the Malaysians to exercise restraint in their actions against our countrymen in Sabah.
What, we wonder, will Mr. Aquino blame on the Arroyo administration next? Will he blame his predecessor for his lack of tact and diplomacy that directly contributed to the bloodshed in Sabah? Or will Mr. Aquino blame former President Gloria Arroyo for his lack of a backbone when it comes to safeguarding the lives of Filipinos abroad?
At some point in his six-year term, not even his considerable propaganda machine will be able to hide Mr. Aquino’s ineptitude, and his callous use of the Arroyo bogeyman will finally be seen for what it is: a cover for what are clearly Mr. Aquino’s own miserable failures.
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