Tit for tat

 

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda says that the administration needs to stay in power for two decades so that the reforms under daang matuwid (straight path) could take root.   He claims that by the 18^th year, the people would already start feeling the fruits of giving “continuity” to a government with an alleged strong anti-corruption stance.

Wow. A government that needs that long to effect societal changes, including helping its citizens get out of poverty, has no business being in power for even a year.  There’s also something very wrong with this claim to daang matuwid in the face of the many corruption scandals that have rocked this outgoing administration. There’s a word for that – hypocrisy.

Take for example the accusation of the Czech ambassador that the top Metro Rail Transit (MRT) official tried to extort money from a company   supplying trains to MRT. And how about the contract shenanigans at MRT that are to blame for its frequent breakdown and near-paralysis?

Is that daang matuwid?

How about the belated removal of Virginia Torres from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) despite that caper she pulled off in leading armed private guards in raiding the office of the erstwhile private partner of the LTO in its computerization program?

Is that daang matuwid?

If the outgoing administration is so desperate to win the presidential election in 2016, it has nothing to do with perpetuating daang matuwid. It is a desperation bordering on a panic as   many of its officials who figured in corruption scandals may face very long jail time. 

After all, a Jejomar Binay or Grace Poe presidency can certainly go after officials of the Aquino administration with the same gusto and manner by which this administration hounded the Arroyos.  Talk about tit-for-tat or getting a dose of one’s own medicine. – End-

Image by: Manila Bulletin