PNoy forgot power crisis, not his stylist

By LITO RULONA
and BEN SERRANO
Correspondents

PRESIDENT Aquino remembered to thank his hairstylist and fashion designer but “forgot” the power crisis that has been gripping Mindanao for years.

Mixed reactions yesterday continued to greet Aquino’s sixth and final State-of-the-Nation Address (Sona) with this city’s vice mayor criticizing him over his failure to tackle the Mindanao power crisis to a preacher expressing dismay over the country’s leader talking to the nation about his hairstylist.

Protests also greeted the Sona in Cagayan de Oro in northern Mindanao and Butuan in Caraga.

Cagayan de Oro Vice Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas said he was disappointed because Aquino “forgot” to discuss the power crisis in Mindanao, and did not even say anything about the January killings that took place in Mamasapano in Maguindanao.

These, he said, are very important issues in Mindanao. Acenas said the Aquino administration could not boast of bringing in more investment to the country and yet keep mum on the power crisis still gripping Mindanao.

Cagayan de Oro-based evangelical minister Genesis Udang said he was dismayed when Aquino paid tribute even to his hairstylist, adding that he found it inappropriate.

During the Sona at the Batasan Pambansa on Monday, Aquino thanked his hairstylist Cherry Reyes and his fashion designer Paul Cabral.

“Gi-apil ang hairdo. Dili maayo ang iyang gihimo nga atubangan sa daghan nga katawhan og sa nasud mismo,” he said.

But Udang gave Aquino a grade of nine––with 10 as the highest––when it came to the economy.

Udang, deputy director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), told local radio, “Nakita nato nga maayo ang iyang lakang sa ekonomiya og pagbalik sa kumpiyansa sa mga international market og investors balik sa Pilipinas. Gihatagan kita og approval rate sa nagkalain-lain nga credit organizations.”

Udang however gave Aquino a grade of five when it came to the government’s peace and order efforts. He said the government lacked direction in the peace process, and was not doing the right thing in pushing for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) without proper public consultaions.

“Wala pud nila gipadayon ang peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines. Sobra ka one-sided ang BBL to the point nga murag gibaligya ang Mindanao,” Udang said.

He gave Aquino a “6” in the campaign against graft and corruption, saying the government was selective. Vice Mayor Acenas said he was also disappointed over Aquino’s failure to push for the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill.

Acenas said many of the cases of development, and infrastructure programs that Aquino discussed were the ones implemented in Metro Manila and other Luzon areas.

He also criticized Aquino for claiming credit for the prosecution and detention of officials charged with corruption when his political allies remained untouched.

“I hope and pray that in his remaining months in Malacanang, he would do away with this selective justice,” he said.
Wildon Barros, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general for Northern Mindanao, called Aquino a “grossly incompetent rich kid and spoiled brat” who was insensitive towards the poor.

“We peasants, workers, urban poor, lumad, youth, women and other marginalized, wallow in so much hardship that we find it hard to speak of the kind of politics that Aquino represents without the use of expletives,” reads a statement released by Barros.

Barros’s counterparts in Caraga organized street demonstrations in Butuan city the same day. Some 4,000 protesters joined a “march protest” and accused the Aquino administration of neglecting the agriculture and labor sectors, and of failing to put an end to the illegal drug menace.

The militants took to the streets and chanted anti-government slogans as they marched toward the Butuan City Rizal Park where they burned an effigy of Aquino and an American flag.

They said all the government under Aquino did was to siphon taxes while it turned a blind eye to the alleged corruption and coddled its erring political allies. While all these were happening, they said, the gap between the rich and poor widened.

In Caraga, they said, many indigenes were displaced in favor of big businesses like mining, and vast tracks of agricultural land were converted.

Bayan secretary general for Caraga Fr. Warlie Carlos said the Aquino administration failed Caraga’s agriculture sector.

“Rice smuggling is still rampant. The Department of Agriculture claims we have sufficient supply of rice but why are we still seeing smuggled rice?” Carlos said.

He also said the government failed in the campaign against the illegal drug trade in Caraga and elsewhere. The supply of shabu, he said, was abundant in Caraga because people in government were in cahoots with the drug syndicates.

Msgr. Rey Monsanto, a consultor of the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Cagayan de Oro, “Wala kita’y dako nga kausaban nga nakita.”

But Monsanto lauded Aquino for calling for the passage of the Anti-Dynasty Bill into law.