Militants here are out to get President Aquino’s head. They want to stuff it and hang it on the wall as a trophy, so to speak.
The onslaught against the President has been intense lately. The political left has been hitting the President at every turn. They’re out to get him, judging from the intensity of the noise.
The bludgeon of choice is the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a budgetary mechanism devised by the administration to move funds from one project to another that has become controversial.
The President’s attackers have succeeded in monopolizing the debate on DAP. They’ve been able to set the agenda and they’re clinging to it like a hard-headed bull terrier.
They saw their opportunity the moment the recent pork-barrel scam here became a sizzling sensation and after a senator, Jinggoy Estrada, exposed DAP. Before that, nobody knew about DAP, even the President’s allies in Congress.
The Aquino administration insists that DAP had existed in previous administrations. From President Fidel Ramos to Joseph Estrada to Gloria Arroyo, it was there, funds from existing projects used for other purposes. It remained out of the public consciousness until the Aquino administration gave it a name. And so DAP became a household word.
The President’s critics gave the name a bad meaning. They called it pork, meaning that it’s money thrown away as patronage. The public, busy as they are in their daily struggles and so used to being content with just the news headlines and sound bites, went along with the critics and accepted the label of DAP as pork.
The critics have taken to the streets with their slogans, beating everybody’s heads with their claim that DAP is pork and the President is pork king. And now they’ve filed an impeachment complaint against the President in Congress.
This is happening against the backdrop of the split in the ranks of leftist activists. Some of them have joined the President’s coalition, to the annoyance of their ideological comrades. The latter want to show who has more muscle among the splintered forces of the left. What better proof than the President’s head mounted on their trophy case.
That and to show their wayward colleagues up for their abominable sin of going mainstream.
The President’s own handlers haven’t been on the ball in the controversies that have found their way to their boss’ doorstep. They hadn’t been able to anticipate the trouble that was going to hit the President. They’ve allowed the President’s detractors to set and dominate the agenda. Now they’re playing catch-up and may not be able to overtake the critics at the next bend.
The President’s communications people, and even the Cabinet secretaries, should have seen the trouble ahead and devised countermeasures to blunt the critics’ attacks. With regard to DAP, they should have gotten in front of the issue instead of waiting until the critics had gained the upper hand in the debate. They should have taken to media and explained DAP in a convincing way to counter the active campaign of the critics.
Now the DAP controversy could get out of hand and put Mr. Aquino’s presidency and legacy in real peril. But, depending on how fast and effective they move, there may still be hope. They will have to use all their powers of persuasion.
The President can take solace from the support of the business community which understands that some fungibility of funds is needed to run a successful business operation. Fungibility, a synonym for interchangeability, is a business term that means using funds from one operation in another operation.
But others may point out the business sector as just being itself, expedient as usual, in that it tolerates actions like diverting funds as business as usual.
The President is in a bind whichever side of the ideological pendulum he seeks refuge in. The coming weeks and months will be nail-biting time for the administration. The President’s men have got to get their acts together if they want to save him.
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Militants here are out to get President Aquino’s head. They want to stuff it and hang it on the wall as a trophy, so to speak.
The onslaught against the President has been intense lately. The political left has been hitting the President at every turn. They’re out to get him, judging from the intensity of the noise.
The bludgeon of choice is the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a budgetary mechanism devised by the administration to move funds from one project to another that has become controversial.
The President’s attackers have succeeded in monopolizing the debate on DAP. They’ve been able to set the agenda and they’re clinging to it like a hard-headed bull terrier.
They saw their opportunity the moment the recent pork-barrel scam here became a sizzling sensation and after a senator, Jinggoy Estrada, exposed DAP. Before that, nobody knew about DAP, even the President’s allies in Congress.
The Aquino administration insists that DAP had existed in previous administrations. From President Fidel Ramos to Joseph Estrada to Gloria Arroyo, it was there, funds from existing projects used for other purposes. It remained out of the public consciousness until the Aquino administration gave it a name. And so DAP became a household word.
The President’s critics gave the name a bad meaning. They called it pork, meaning that it’s money thrown away as patronage. The public, busy as they are in their daily struggles and so used to being content with just the news headlines and sound bites, went along with the critics and accepted the label of DAP as pork.
The critics have taken to the streets with their slogans, beating everybody’s heads with their claim that DAP is pork and the President is pork king. And now they’ve filed an impeachment complaint against the President in Congress.
This is happening against the backdrop of the split in the ranks of leftist activists. Some of them have joined the President’s coalition, to the annoyance of their ideological comrades. The latter want to show who has more muscle among the splintered forces of the left. What better proof than the President’s head mounted on their trophy case.
That and to show their wayward colleagues up for their abominable sin of going mainstream.
The President’s own handlers haven’t been on the ball in the controversies that have found their way to their boss’ doorstep. They hadn’t been able to anticipate the trouble that was going to hit the President. They’ve allowed the President’s detractors to set and dominate the agenda. Now they’re playing catch-up and may not be able to overtake the critics at the next bend.
The President’s communications people, and even the Cabinet secretaries, should have seen the trouble ahead and devised countermeasures to blunt the critics’ attacks. With regard to DAP, they should have gotten in front of the issue instead of waiting until the critics had gained the upper hand in the debate. They should have taken to media and explained DAP in a convincing way to counter the active campaign of the critics.
Now the DAP controversy could get out of hand and put Mr. Aquino’s presidency and legacy in real peril. But, depending on how fast and effective they move, there may still be hope. They will have to use all their powers of persuasion.
The President can take solace from the support of the business community which understands that some fungibility of funds is needed to run a successful business operation. Fungibility, a synonym for interchangeability, is a business term that means using funds from one operation in another operation.
But others may point out the business sector as just being itself, expedient as usual, in that it tolerates actions like diverting funds as business as usual.
The President is in a bind whichever side of the ideological pendulum he seeks refuge in. The coming weeks and months will be nail-biting time for the administration. The President’s men have got to get their acts together if they want to save him.
***