Filipino majority still want PNoy to stay at the helm

It's heartening that the majority of us say PNoy should not resign over the unfortunate Mamasapano massacre.

The Senate Committee says he should have done more. Easier said than done, to paraphrase the Bard from Stratford on Avon. 

The president made a judgment call within the range of his executive prerogatives. The BOI inquiry rightly recognized this. Senator Belmonte was fair pointing out that what the President did in consulting General Purisima was still good common sense because the general had important stock knowledge about the conflict. His suspension didn't obviate the fact that his brains could still be picked on to the picker's advantage.

If truly there was a misstep in the execution of policy, he's not the only one to have done this. Remember the celebrated John Kennedy, and the much-loved Ronald Reagan? Did their constituents move to  impeach them or unfairly smear their names? NO!  Pnoy did his best under the pressure-cooker situation. As one analyst said, the President as chief executive isn't liable for the tactical details. The ones he gave orders to miscarried his directive, the BOI report says.  That's why they've been sacked promptly.

It's unfortunate that some Aglipayan and Catholic leaders have been so gung-ho about condemning the president even before the relevant investigations were completed.  Just like the all of a sudden legally omniscent Nora Aunor, they've been recklessly shooting from the hip as if they were the lower, appeal, and supreme courts combined. It looks like these seemingly righteous para-legals are imposing standards on the president that may not exist. Shouldn't these people check the mote in their eyes before tearing Pnoy apart for his particle?

Ex-President Ramos is also not acting like the respectable statesman lambasting PNoy for not being presidential.  Coffee pot calling the tea kettle black! 

I think it's fair to say that this incumbent president who has yet to be accused of stealing a centavo from the public purse (the capital sin of many previous presidents) did his job surely not to aggrandize himself. He doesn't need to do this. Leaders from other countries highly respect him for his competence and success in standard setting with his "daan na matuwid." That's quite ingenious leadership to come up with this metaphor so necessary to lift us from endemic corruption.      

Nobody can deny that the Philippines stature in the world stage has been raised notches higher under his tenure. The French president recently recognized him as an equal, not a token, negotiator in environmental issues.  Quite a compliment coming from a European political main player. 

Back home, it moves me quite much that his sister Kris will save from her earnings enough money (and she's the topmost showbiz person who pays her taxes thus benefiting us all) to help defray costs of fighting his ill-wishers.  A testimony that he's been squeaky clean and didn't amass wealth at all unlike his predecessors.

Senator Ninoy Aquino Sr. and President Cory Aquino, thank you for gifting us PNoy and his rightly supportive sisters.  Long they may live.

Lillian C. Garcia

935 S Salinas Drive

Lahug, Cebu City