IN my mind, President Aquino seems to think that people want him to be president for another six years.
It’s baffling to think why. After all, he raised the price of gasoline and other petroleum products, made garlic and sugar disappear from our tables, and made chicken and pork more expensive. He did wrong at the most profitable time.
No one can quarrel with his daang matuwid (straight path) campaign, because it has to do with corruption. Check this: Could anyone see former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in iron chains (despite being in jail) or former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo unable to travel? President Aquino has been rebuked by Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., because they have said there is simply no time for an extension of his term, which would mean no elections in 2016, which, in turn, is against the Constitution. Besides, the Liberal Party itself has not indicated willingness to fight “the good fight,” as far as a term extension is concerned, because it does not see any benefit in that. Too much good would be given up.
As of this writing, the President is on a visit to the United States, which is turning out to be a bore, as far as party matters are concerned. For one thing, a party not willing to exert efforts to extend the term of the President is not worth joining. He has appeared in New York and Paris. In both cities, he was booed for saying things that Gabriela, which boasts of branches in other parts of the world, was unable and unwilling to hear. He could be trapped in his stance, but that is his problem, not mine. He is, for all those willing to listen, still enmeshed in his stance of being a man for all seasons, which he is clearly not.
It seems that every time the President tries to sell his idea of a second term, he ends up disappointed