EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

 

 

Big dip

 

It’s getting worse for Noynoy Aquino, by way of public dissatisfaction rating over his administration’s performance.

The latest survey — actually two months old, as the survey was conducted between March 4 and 7 — showed that the Aquino administration’s net satisfaction rating suffered another dramatic fall, dropping by 18 points from last November’s survey, now getting a net rating of +46, so said Social Weather Stations (SWS) that still rated this, according to its terminology, as “good.”

Reacting to the survey dip, his mouthpieces did a Gloria mouthpiece, dismissing the falling numbers, saying that they are not alarmed at all, stressing that the numbers remain relatively high compared to Noynoy’s predecessors during similar periods of their respective administrations.

What is not being said by Noynoy’s mouthpieces is that drops in previous administrations that occurred during their terms were not that big a drop in a space of a quarter. And not quite dropping in their less than 9 months in office.

But leave the Palace to its denials.

Despite putting up a brave front over the dropping ratings of Noynoy however, it is fairly evident that Malacañang and its principal, are pretty worried over the falling numbers, especially as they know that Noynoy is a creation of the Yellow media and that he and his government survive on propaganda rather than achievements and performance.

The fact alone that over the past few weeks, Noynoy has been trying to project himself — albeit unsuccessfully — as a “hard at work” president, by even coming out and saying that he would have a very busy work week during the Lenten break, visiting airports, seaports and bus terminals yet it was clear that he was just doing it for less than a day and simply for photo ops.

Then too, with news that the US Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden, there he went, announcing that he would be convening the security cluster and check on security precautions and even going on an overkill in attempting to portray himself as a quick response leader which was a silly move, given the fact that, as president, he should already have been apprised of the security situation by his intelligence teams. Besides which, in a global terror war, security should be a 24/7 issue, not just when bin Laden and terrorists are killed. Certainly, a security cluster meeting is hardly going to produce anything. Just what is his government supposed to do, especially when the target of the jihadists who may want to avenge the death of bin Laden would be the USA, not the Philippines.

Besides, it is always being claimed by the military and the police that the Abu Sayyaf, which is said to have links to bin Laden, is already a spent force.

Obviously, all this is being done in Noynoy’s bid to erase the already cemented image of his very laidback presidency, and attempting to earn pogi points in the media, is evidence that Noynoy and his Palace boys are worried about their dipping ratings.

Word is even out that Noynoy has hired a big time crisis PR man who has landed a contract for a makeover of Noynoy and the fee he charged is reportedly fantabulous.

Not surprisingly, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda expressed confidence that the Aquino government’s performance ratings will improve, saying that the general public has already recognized the efforts made by the administration along key governance issues. That’s bravura.

This is not propped up by the ratings, but Noynoy and his boys can certainly go on dreaming and remain in a denial state, as all this will eventually come back to him in a nightmare.

The fact is, Noynoy’s ratings are expected to fall some more, mainly because he has done nothing by way of resolving the problems the nation faces; he has not done anything by way of bringing down the oil prices — which have risen dramatically due also to the 12 percent expanded value-added tax government imposes. The poor certainly have gotten poorer, and even the middle class is going the way of the poorhouse.

And worse of all, Noynoy, along with his administrators, are utterly devoid of direction and policies.

Instead of focusing on alleviating the plight of the citizenry and its multi-faceted problems, he prefers to spend his time politicking, in between being focused on his computer games.

It won’t be easy to erase Noynoy’s image as a non-achiever, non-performer and non-president.

Lazy is as lazy does.