Powerless, power-mad

Tuesday, 27 March, 2012 Written by JoJo Robles


Power fascinates President Noynoy Aquino. But the poster boy for Noynoying wants political power, not the electrical kind that Mindanao desperately needs.


On the Noynoying front, Aquino recently made the discovery that there is a power crisis in Mindanao. And Aquino’s response to the problem—which is making life a living, powerless hell for millions of Filipinos on the island, is more Noynoying in the form of blaming his predecessors.


“If 30 years ago, when I was still a college student, they had fixed this problem, then I would not have this problem now,” he said. All the same, Aquino said, it will take at least two years to remedy the situation, because “it’s not like we’re changing a light bulb here.”


So, the good news is that Aquino has finally woken up to a problem that he needs to attend to, something that he never even mentioned two years ago, when his term was beginning. But the bad news is that he has now wasted two years doing other stuff (Noynoying, really) when he could have attended to the Mindanao power crisis right after he assumed the presidency—if he was really serious about his promise to “hit the ground running.”


But we already know that problems like the daily Mindanao blackouts just don’t interest this Noynoying President, or he would have attended to them. His interests lay elsewhere, like Noynoying about politics, his full-time occupation. Yes, when it comes to politics, the Noyster is the soul of planning.


“It will be elections next year and I will appeal to you again,” he said over the weekend, virtually launching the campaign for his candidates in next year’s elections. “I appeal to you if you can increase my allies so we can easily agree in our discussions, not immediately contradict when I have a proposal.”


But Noynoying is not just doing nothing, but also getting totally immersed in unnecessary things —like politicking while so many important jobs need to be done. And here’s a new form of Noynoying: Aquino’s belief in packing the government with yes-men to save him the bother of consultations and compromise which take too much trouble and work, apparently.


Yes, power does excite Aquino. But that’s political power, as opposed to the kind that lights up bulbs.


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(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/March/28)