Mr. Aquino never cared for lives his policies laid to waste
FORMER President Benigno S. Aquino 3rd was a master of the technocratic narrative in the two times he appeared before Congress on the Dengvaxia controversy. One got the sense he knew he was on top of things, from the time the proposal to use the untested Dengvaxia was put forward to the approval during Ms. Janette Garin’s time as health secretary. On precedents and antecedents, pharmaceutical details, on the scien Mr. Aquino’s testimonies gave the general impression that he knew what he was talking about, the minutiae of policy and the broad picture even.
The allies of President Rodrigo Duterte who wanted to trap Mr. Aquino and put him on the de- fensive, error-prone corner—the inquisitors waiting for a gaffe from the former President—just never had the chance to corner Mr. Aquino. Mr. Aquino proved to be the deeper and more learned on policy. Mr. Aquino’s seamless narrative, segueing from one factoid to another, crushed any and all effort to publicly humiliate him on the Dengvaxia controversy.
Unlike the fumbling Ms. Garin who failed to keep the PAO “experts” at bay, Mr. Aquino was left unscathed after two congressional testimonies. The pro- Duterte bloggers who wanted to rake Mr. Aquino in proverbial pits of coals should he fumble—and rake him endlessly using those vicious words without meaning—were left with no material after the hush of silence that came in the wake of Mr. Aquino’s two testimonies.
The House panel looking into the Dengvaxia mess promptly cleared Mr. Aquino, the master of the technocratic narrative.
Yet, after Mr. Aquino had left his
critics silent, after he had displayed his mastery of policy, after he had deprived the proDuterte bloggers of possible cruel spins, many concerned Filipinos remained troubled. Many got the feeling that Mr. Aquino’s testimonies were Robert Strange McNamara, the who served as defense secretary to John F. Kennedy, as he laid easy victory in the Vietnam War, the worst policy disaster of the US in the 20th century.
McNamara, who pioneered the introduction of “systems public policy, was both brilliant and persuasive in arguing for deeper involvement in that war. But his thesis on the Vietnam War proved that the mastery of details was irrelevant in a war in a Southeast Asian theater and the superior might of the US military would more than find its match in the person of determined VietCongs.
History taught us what was – and what is still – wrong with masterful presentations and the seemingly convincing power of for the human element, for human lives that are papered over and obscured as technocrats go about the implementation of policies and edicts that are sound on paper but are disasters when applied at the ground level.
The Dengvaxia mess is one such mess. If we go by the strict - no, as the House panel has ruled, is not accountable. But his characteristic indifference, his coldness even, to real lives that were run over by his seemingly proper and legal policies in his display during his testimonies.
As Mr. Aquino spun his narrative that silenced the House members, no one pointed out those who were vaccinated with Dengvaxia, then succumbed to their premature deaths. Did you not ever, Mr. President, realize that Dengvaxia would and mothers? That at that stage of development, Dengvaxia posed real danger to vaccinated children? That your government - tions and uncertainties?
The grief, the suffering, the anguish and the lamentations - tion of Mr. Aquino – this is the whole truth, because he did not care for them, never. Human lives, especially the lives of the underclass, were never part of Mr. Aquino’s governing equation in his six years in power.
I remember that halfway through the presidency of Mr. Aquino, I wrote a column headlined, “Change your photo- ops, - er commiserated with victims of tragedies, with victims of violence, with those down- andout and with those suffering, and his official photos recorded that. His photo- ops were exclusively with technocrats, CEOs, taipans and tycoons, never with labor leaders, peasant leaders, the angry street protesters.
While Mr. Aquino was uneasy with every interaction with the Everyman, he was all grin and smiles as he inaugurated roads and bridges and hobnobbed with the captains of industry. Do you still remember the sad day the body bags of the heroic SAF 44 were brought to Manila? Mr. Aquino was not there to meet the car assembly plant in Laguna.
After the media reportage on his first order was to cut all to cooperatives as front for her scams – with the small farmers and coops as the real victims – was ignored by Mr. Aquino. He promptly cut off the small subsidies, part of the lifeline of the neglected small farmers.
for the poor had been vetoed by Mr. Aquino? His beloved obsession with GDP were all what he truly cared about.