Give food, not clothes, to Naga
There is no doubt that Sen. Antonio Trillanes has been the biggest thorn in President Duterte’s side after the incarceration of Sen. Leila de Lima. He pestered the president with demands to disclose alleged bank accounts, accused his son of being in cahoots with smugglers and generally made life difficult for administration allies during Senate investigations.
But he is not going to be a senator for long. At noontime of June 30 next year, he shall have served out his second term as senator, rendering him ineligible to run for re-election. Trillanes will probably still be sniping at Duterte at that time but he no longer has a platform like the Senate to do that. Our experience with ex-senators is that they become politically irrelevant such that their opinions are rarely sought, if at all.
It is therefore surprising that the administration would run after Trillanes hammer and tongs instead of waiting for his fire to flicker out in little more than nine months. The cancellation of his amnesty is clearly politically motivated and is one of the most controversial decisions the administration has ever made.
It is also pregnant with implications. What happens now to the other mutineers who had similarly sought and granted amnesty? Will the administration run after them, too? Or has somebody made sure that unlike in the case of the maverick senator whose application for amnesty is allegedly missing, theirs are intact and easily verifiable?
Trillanes remained a peripheral figure in Philippine politics even when he was criticizing Duterte. Not anymore. Over a period of three or four weeks, he has morphed from mischief maker to martyr. To a neutral observer, what is happening to him is persecution.
The timing itself does not help. The President’s trust ratings are at a personal lowest although still very high when compared to many of his predecessors, notably Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. How do you think will people feel about someone who has played the role of martyr to perfection and the other who caused the misery?
The President is still the most trusted nationally-elected official in the country. If “Red October,” code name for the alleged plot to unseat him, does exist, it is foolish and suicidal. It has absolutely no chance of succeeding. But he should not dissipate the goodwill that the Filipinos have for him by running after critics like Trillanes. Remember how Cory Aquino reacted to someone’s continued tirade against her? She called him “langaw.” Duterte can take a cue or two from that.
The response of the Cebuano community to the tragedy in Tina-an, Naga has been so enormous, it has given rise to logistical problems. The city government has already borrowed not six but ten container vans from Gothong Southern Shipping so they can have more storage space for donated items but they’re probably not enough as donations continue to arrive.
Former mayor Val Chiong, father of the incumbent mayor Kristine, said they have received more than enough clothes for the victims already but they still need assistance for food and water. Better still, why not give money instead?
Yesterday, the SPC Power Corp. did just that. SPC co-founder and chief executive officer Dennis Villareal handed over to Val and Kristine a check for P1 million as donation for the landslide victims. A sister company, Kepco, also gave another P1 million.
SPC has a history of cooperation with the City of Naga. A few years ago, it built a modern library for the city, which continues to operate until now, serving the needs not only of the students but the entire community. The company said their donation was an expression of their continued solidarity with the city.