President Noynoy Aquino (P-Noy) has his fair share of media critics and non-believers – some working for political interests you wouldn’t want to run this country. Some media critics of P-Noy have been peddling outright demolition canards. Their favorite demolition template is the “clueless, lazy, crony-coddling” tag.
Sans proof to support their assertions, they kept hammering their “clueless, lazy, crony coddling” tag like a Buddhist mantra. That’s how Nazi Chief Propagandist Joseph Goebbels conceived it – tell a lie often enough and it’s eventually perceived as the truth.
In the political arena, there’s the Left and its front organizations that are unrelenting in attacking P-Noy. They’ve succeeded in gaining congressional seats as Party-list Representatives. They’re the nosiest and could never see anything good in the P-Noy administration. The Left never saw anything good in any administration. A male nurse commented that the Left would only see something good in an administration headed by Joma Sison.
During the recent dialogue with transport groups at the Palace, which was attended by P-Noy, the militant PISTON insisted on holding a transport strike on September 19 despite the fact that all the other transport groups had backed out after feeling satisfied with administration assurances. PISTON has been egging the administration to repeal the oil deregulation law, a pipe dream because we cannot afford to subsidize fuel consumption.
Also heckling P-Noy are the political allies of former president, now Pampanga Representative, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA). Having to account for GMA’s climate of impunity, they wisely pick their battles. People hiding something don’t want to attract attention.
There are also those opportunistic political players who may appear allied now with the P-Noy administration but are harboring political ambitions that will eventually clash with the DAANG MATUWID (the straight path) agenda. It’s said that the Joseph Estrada group is one of these. Presently friendly, a reliable source said that this group foresees a clash of interests in the light of Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s plan to run for president in 2016.
Originally touted to be a candidate for vice president in 2016, Jinggoy Estrada is said to have opted to run for president instead. His pandering to the Catholic Church lately would seem to be consistent with a presidential game plan. In the order of battle, Jinggoy cannot hope to be favored as the administration presidential candidate for 2016. Thus, it would not come as a surprise if his camp will attempt to diminish P-Noy’s endorsement value by 2016.
Of course, there are those members of the Catholic Church hierarchy who would want to burn P-Noy at the stake, like St. Joan of Arc, for supporting the RH Bill — if only the times still allowed it. What surprises you is that many of the Philippine Catholic Church leaders were silent during the GMA regime, perceived by many as evil, but are now trying to destabilize a good president who hasn’t been involved in any case of corruption or blatant abuse of power.
The latest survey of Pulse Asia, which was announced last Thursday, must have hit these P-Noy critics like a ton of meteors falling from the heavens. They have been predicting gloom and doom under the “clueless, lazy, crony coddling” P-Noy administration and now here comes a trustworthy survey organization saying that P-Noy’s approval and trust ratings have increased.
From 71 percent approval rating, P-Noy rated 77 percent (only 4 percent disapproved) and from 71 percent trust rating, P-Noy rated 75 percent (only 5 percent with no trust), up 6 points and 4 points, respectively. The most heartbreaking stat for P-Noy’s critics is that the president’s ratings were highest amongst the Class E, the masses. P-Noy had an 86 percent Class E approval rating versus 1 percent disapproval, 82 percent trust rating versus 2 percent no trust.
Per the Pulse Asia media report, “Among the developments that dominated the news headlines immediately prior to and during the conduct of the survey interviews are the: (1) second State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno S. Aquino III delivered before Congress on 25 July 2011; (2) congressional investigation into the purchase of used helicopters by the Philippine National Police (PNP) back in 2009 and the alleged involvement of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in the anomalous transaction; (3) medical condition of former President and incumbent Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband; (4) claims made by several witnesses as regards fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections; (5) talks held by President Aquino with the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); (6) resignation of former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim and the removal from office of Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez; (7) continuing discussions on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill; (8) increase in dengue cases in Metro Manila and other parts of the country; (9) death and destruction caused by typhoon Mina;(10) evacuation of Filipinos in Syria and Libya; (11) President Aquino’s visit to China; and (12) in the economic front, the appreciation of the local currency vis-à-vis the American dollar, the increase in power rates and the rollback in pump prices.”
There’s an undeniably widespread public appreciation for a conscientious P-Noy effort to eradicate corruption, promote peace, reduce poverty and improve foreign relations as well as our currency’s value.
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