The correct path, according to Noynoy

By Al S. Mendoza

THE way he spoke, I thought I was inside a classroom.

Noynoy Aquino was pontificating, lecturing?

He was full of promises in his inaugural address on June 30 and, well, for once, give it to him.

Campaign hangover hovering still?

I can only wish his words would become deeds from today through the next six years that he’ll be our president.

Otherwise, an armed revolution might suddenly be the only option left to bring about change in this benighted country of ours.

We’ve suffered enough, you know.

Regime after regime, the agents of callousness remain entrenched like barnacles.

Election after election, the slew of promises resonates like broken tunes from a long-forgotten era.

President after president, the tools of thievery keep raiding the nation’s coffers.

The last president alone was so disliked she was booed while leaving Luneta after she had protocol-brought Noynoy to the Quirino Grandstand.

You are the president, you ought to get respect at all times – even if, at times, only skin-deep.

But no.  Ate glue was jeered lustily, so that you think some thing must be terribly bad about her, about her administration.

“Hello Garci” brouhaha?

Fertilizer scam?

Aborted ZTN broadband deal (thanks to Joey DV)?

Million-peso dinners in Washington D.C. and New York City’s Le Cirque?

Midnight appointments in wild abandon?

In his speech, Noynoy minced no words in indicting Ate Glue, and spoke forcefully about the need to end all evils that plagued his predecessor’s tenure.

Cheating.  Lying. Stealing. Murdering. They’d be licked with finality, Noynoy said.

No more padrinos.  No more influence peddling.  No more palakasan.  No more counterflow.  No more wang-wangs.

It’s good to hear promises.  It gets bad when they remain that – promises.

In his parting shot, Noynoy, speaking mostly in Tagalog, emphatically mentioned about the “correct path” his administration will trod on.

He said, “Layunin ko na sa pagbaba ko sa katungkulan, masasabi ng lahat na malayo na ang narating natin sa pagtahak ng tuwid na landas at mas maganda na ang kinabukasang ipapamana natin sa susunod na henerasyon.  Samahan ninyo ako sa pagtatapos ng laban na ito.  Tayo na sa tuwid na landas.”

Erap, for his inaugural speech on June 30, 1998, also at the Luneta, had this for a final line:  “Now, power is with the people: One of their own has made it.”

What became of that power, you know it – or you were absent that day.

Twelve years later, that power is now with the scion of one of the wealthiest families in the country.

Will Noynoy keep his promise and wield it in the best interest of the people, whom he had addressed, “Kayo ang aking boss”?

I wish he would.

I dread Chairman Mao’s admonition:  “Political power grows out of a barrel of a gun.”

Class dismiss.

****

TOPPINGS Raise your glasses to Lydia Pioquinto and Leonardo “Leonie” J. Galvez.  They are the best among the alumni during the Pangasinan National High School reunion held recently in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Kuya Mario C. Panoringan read the governor’s message for the historic occasion sent by Guv Spines. To Kuya Leonie, my witty glassmate before he migrated to the US of A, goes my warmest handshake of all.  Cheers!

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments