No Honeymoon in a Crisis

MANILA - President Benigno Aquino III was quoted last week complaining that he is not being given a "honeymoon" by the media as criticisms are starting to come his way. The very first executive order of his administration received flak for being legally inappropriate; the conflicts of interest in his appointments such as that of Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras immediately landed in the news. Public Works Sec. Rogelio Singson, who was the president of Maynilad before his appointment, was also initially appointed as the chair of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, which oversees water rates and sets policies governing the two private water concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water. When this raised a furor, suddenly nobody knows who appointed who or who recommended who.

President Aquino should realize that with the state of crisis enveloping Philippine society today, there is no room for a honeymoon. Only those who are not experiencing difficulties in making both ends meet because of the worsening poverty and unemployment amid the increasing prices of basic goods and services could afford to wait until the new administration gets its act together; only those who did not experience his or her rights being trampled upon or his or her relative being killed or forcibly abducted could wait for the slow grind of justice to right the wrongs and prosecute the perpetrators; only those who are not victims or potential victims of impunity could relax and wait while the new administration focuses its attention on some other things, such as the appointment of friends and supporters in government and the writing of speeches; and only those who are not hurting from the high electricity and water rates while being provided with shoddy services and suffering from shortages could say, "Okay let us wait till the new administration reaches 100 days before complaining."

These problems would not go away by simply denying that it exists or by setting it aside until the Aquino administration has the time to address these. Take the shortage in water as a case in point. Maynilad has been rationing water for more than a month already and still the water companies and the administrators of Angat Dam are saying that we only have 40 days of water left if there would be no sufficient rainfall.