PNoy to visit northern Cebu?

Well, well, well! Mr. Johnny-come-lately President Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III finally succumbed to pressure and will visit typhoon-ravaged areas he sorely missed such as Guiuan, Samar, Palo, Leyte, and, yes, Bantayan Island, Cebu. More than a hundred days have passed since super typhoon "Yolanda" struck. If there is any huge advantage for the President in this very late visit, he won't be tagging along anyone from the International Press, unlike in the early days after the typhoon struck where almost all International News media outlets went to Tacloban City.

At this point, I really don't know what good this visit would do when in fact, last Monday, the Tindog People's Network group marched to Mendiola to demonstrate against the Aquino government's inadequate preparations for the typhoon. What was even more painful for those people is the fact that the Yellow propaganda machinery of PNoy used survey results to show that the popularity of PNoy didn't even diminish despite huge negative reports dished out by the International Press. This was the biggest lie that the Yellow propagandists foisted on the Filipino people.

Now the Yellow propagandists are on "damage-control" mode, sending PNoy to places he failed to visit on those days when the typhoon victims needed him most. But does PNoy really care for those typhoon victims? Did he accommodate the Tindog People's Network protestors who marched to Mendiola? No. He didn't even give them the chance to drop by for a chat. A President who truly cares for his constituents would go out of his way to show his concern for their plight.

So what can we expect from PNoy when he visits Bantayan Island or Medellin? I reckon he'd give the residents another bunch of empty promises just like most politicians do. For sure, he'd be surprised to see that the Aboitiz Foundation (AF) has done more than what the national government or even the Cebu provincial government had done so far. On its own, the Aboitiz Group raised P203 million, which it distributed in northern Cebu and Leyte. Of this fund, P140 million is earmarked for rehabilitation efforts. The province of Cebu only gave its northern municipalities P2 million each. Next month AF will start repairing 200 classrooms in northern Cebu notably Bogo City and San Remigio that will benefit some 13,000 students. It is also building 70 new classrooms there. Now can Pres. Aquino top this? I certainly doubt it!

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Look at the world today. A great majority of people are fed up with their governments. There are violent protests in Ukraine. Protesters are being shot and killed in Thailand, and now, Venezuelans are up in arms against their government because of a bad economy and poverty. Wanna talk about the good ol' USA? So far, almost everyone whom I have met that has arrived from the US is not happy with their government under Pres. Barrack Obama. There are Americans on social networks who openly talk about a coup d'état!

Of course, there could never be a coup in the US simply because Americans believe in democracy. Despite the checks and balances, the people in Thailand are not happy with their leaders and have been out in the streets for months already.

Yet in 2012, democracy died in this country when the Philippine Senate convicted the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the person of Chief Justice Renato Corona. His ouster opened the door for Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III to choose Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as replacement. Never has a sitting President of the Philippines since the Marcos Dictatorship wielded so much power that he literally has the Legislative Branch in his pockets. Are we still a democracy, people are asking.

Last week, the Social Weather Station (SWS) revealed that the jobless rate has climbed to 12.1 million Filipinos. That report got PNoy completely bonkers and shocked to the point that he called a Cabinet meeting and ordered his Cabinet to push harder for job creation. But it is easy to order the Cabinet to a meeting but creating jobs is another matter. It means giving incentives to new businesses, cutting off government bureaucracy, and, yes, making sure that our power rates are acceptable to foreign investors. But putting a dream job creation program into this mix can't be done in PNoy's remaining years.

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