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Dear
Queenie,
Do you
have any idea what makiramay means?
Makiramay
means you care. It means you share the pain of those who
lost their family, their friends and their property in
the recent typhoon.
Makiramay
is not your press secretary announcing, “The President
is so concerned about the situation there. Immediately
upon arriving here in San Francisco, she convened the
NDCC [National Disaster Coordinating Council] to be able
to be personally informed of the situation there.”
You need
to be HERE, not THERE. You need to be in the calamity
areas handing out relief goods and offering comfort to
the typhoon victims, not in the comfort of your suite at
the Fairmont Hotel barking out orders and bawling out
the Coast Guard chief.
What is
so important about your trip that you cannot cancel it
to be with your suffering people?
From San
Francisco you flew to Fresno to thank expats for their
help over the years. You went to the Community Regional
Medical Center to tell the Filipino medical
practitioners, “Bumisita ako ngayon para ipaalam sa
inyo na ipinagmamalaki namin ang ating mga medical
practitioners dito sa Amerika.”
And
then, as an added treat, according to your press
secretary’s web site, “Some 600 Filipino-Americans
witnessed the President’s conduct of a video conference
with the National Disaster Coordinating Council where
President Arroyo showed that despite her being out of
the Philippines to foster diplomatic relations with its
most important ally, she remains focused and on top of
the situation back home.”
Your
president at work?
A total
of 198,545 Ilonggos are in 58 evacuation centers in
Iloilo City; 353,000 were displaced in the rest of the
province; 33,000 families suffered the same fate in
Eastern Visayas; and over 700 are dead in a ferry
accident. And you’re in Fresno, California, posing for
pictures.
In
Washington the only meeting you cannot pass off to a
Cabinet member is your tête-à-tête with lame-duck
George. That’s nothing but a photo op. What lasting
commitment can you get from him, who will be gone by
January?
It would
be nice to personally thank Bush and the US Senate for
the Veterans Bill, but there’s a calamity back home.
They will understand.
You
don’t have to go to the Pentagon. Gilbert Teodoro can
meet with his counterpart to discuss defense reform even
though it’s a waste of time because he will be talking
to a lame-duck secretary.
There is
no meeting in Washington that you cannot cancel.
As for
New York, do you really have to personally wine and dine
those UN permanent representatives to get their vote for
Miriam Santiago? What do you think the people of Iloilo
will appreciate more: Your presence in their province or
you campaigning in New York for their province-mate?
You have
been compared to Marcos countless times. It’s unfair to
the late dictator and his family. Marunong makiramay
ang mga Marcos in times of calamity.
Imelda
Marcos and her children, even at the height of a
typhoon, would always be at the scene of a disaster
giving aid and comfort to the victims. You always arrive
late.
I
remember when Milenyo hit the country, the first photo
to appear in the papers was you, in your cute little
rainwear, inspecting the fallen trees in Malacañang
while hundreds of thousands of victims in the Bicol
region and Southern Luzon were waiting for some relief.
And you wonder why you are the most disliked president
this country ever had?
I have
seen Imelda shed tears as she embraced victims of
calamities. Her tears were real. I have seen you in
similar situations; you look uncomfortable, and your
discomfort is real.
Makiramay ka!
It’s not enough that you show the people you are
micromanaging the situation. Managing is not caring;
it’s a job. Victims need to know someone cares.
I know
you don’t give a shit about your people, but I know you
love living in Malacañang. So cut your trip short before
the people finally decide to cut your stay short.
Your
loyal subject,
MB
Buencamino is a fellow of Action for Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph). |
