Aquino's political missteps by Ninez Cacho Olivares Tribune

Political missteps


FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

02/19/2010

Noynoy Aquino and his band of Liberals are clearly panicking, their panic mode being mainly based on the speed within which his survey ratings have been falling. And the panic in them shows, as one big mistake after another is being committed by their standard bearer, who, along with his team, seems to be clueless on how to get back to the top rung — at least in surveys and even their political propaganda.

Their problem — if they have not realized it yet — stems from the fact that Noynoy, along with his frigging civil socialites, banked heavily on the wave of sympathy that arose from the death of Cory Aquino. Everything--especially their message, all hinged on this claimed euphoria, generated incidentally by the Yellow media’s non-stop coverage. And Noynoy, his sisters and the Liberals were much too confident of victory, and were ultra-smug, as though the presidency was Cory’s heir’s divine right to take.

And so the Liberals and Noynoy’s civil society group focused on that one theme: Noynoy’s “right” and “destiny” to become the next president of the republic — because he was the son of Cory Aquino and Ninoy Aquino.

Never mind that he had no experience in administration or even on management, apart from the fact that, during his almost nine years in Congress, as a legislator, he had done nothing by way of introducing legislative measures that would ease the plight of the poor, or even curbing corruption and other ills of government that he now rails against. He was Cory and Ninoy’s son, and that was enough. So they, in their arrogance, believed.

After all, there was his mother, who was just a housewife, knowing nothing about governance, and was projected as a near saint by the yellow media that were ever so protective of Cory, that all the corrupt practices, the abuse of her power to benefit the family’s fortunes and hacienda, were hardly ever brought to light, and she was president for over six years.

Predictably, the political spiel Noynoy and the Liberals came up with was a rehash of the Cory style of campaigning: Noynoy, like his mother, was a reluctant candidate (which is rubbish), thrust in the position of a presidential candidate fighting the “forces of evil” that he and his allies identified as the anti-Arroyo regime.

He is as clueless as his mother was, and with no experience in governing, as his mother was. And the reply to these was the same as it was during the Cory campaign: It’s the good genes inherited. He may be inexperienced, but inexperienced in the ways of graft and corruption.

They believed that which worked for Cory in 1985 would work for Noynoy — and it could have if there were only two candidates: He and Gloria. But Gloria isn’t running for the same post, and their forces of evil spiel doesn’t work for Noynoy.

But as his survey numbers were still up, with wide margins too, all the more they had become too confident and too smug, and much too arrogant, because his allies claimed that the wave of sympathy had become permanent, and transferred to Noynoy.

But euphoria is always ethereal and must perforce wane and disappear with time, as it did, and Noynoy was now being weighed by the electorate that are finding him wanting.

But where he could have made a different projection of himself as a presidential candidate, especially in the so-called debates and presidential forums, he displayed arrogance when he refused to answer any questions coming from survey cellar dwellers, stating it to be so and when he threatened to fire any chief justice appointed by Gloria.

Lately, it appears that he is losing his grip, coming off as much too petulant and spoiled, demanding too much, even in forums, and complaining about the unfair treatment he was getting from forum moderators. Yet he does not complain when his yellow media are so biased for him.

He obviously can’t take criticism and even seems paranoid about this to the extent of seeing those who criticize him as his enemies, really no different from his mother.

Since he can’t take the heat, he really should get out of the kitchen.