Backlash

“GIVE ME a chance to help you. I cannot let Pampanga be left behind in the progress that is being attained by the Philippines.”

So said President Aquino at the Liberal Party rally in the City of San Fernando on the last day of filing of the certificates of candidacy of 2013 poll aspirants and pretenders. This, as he endorsed Eddie T. Panlilio for governor anew, and promised he would “advance the full liberation of Pampanga.”

Liberation from whom and for what, the President did not bother to explain. As he could not, Pampanga – per data of government agencies themselves – ranks among the country’s top performing provinces. Yeah, wasn’t Gov. Lilia G. Pineda recently recognized as Most Outstanding Governor in the National PESO (Public Employment Service Office) Award? 

Under the same breath though, Aquino declared: “A plan is not yet set on whether or not we are moving to Clark (as the new international gateway),” citing distance – 80 kilometers – between Metro Manila and Clark as primary deterring factor.

So what was Aquino again saying he cannot let Pampanga be left behind in terms of progress, when the full development of Clark airport makes the singular factor to a greater socio-economic take-off not only of Pampanga but of the whole of Central Luzon and, by ripple effect, of the whole north Philippines? 

“Misinformed,” said the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) of Aquino on the Clark airport issue. Disinforming, I dare say Aquino was more likely doing with his Clark airport pronouncement.

Which leads me to muse: Some foot-in-mouth disease Aquino gets afflicted with when exposed to anything Kapampangan. Symptomatic of some manic obsession with his former Ateneo economics professor and immediate predecessor? (Aye, what was it that Professor Gloria did to pupil Noynoy that so sparked a vindictive streak in him long after he graduated?)

GMA has become not only the subject of persecution but the object of derision in the Aquino administration.

Even in far off New Zealand, Aquino did not spare her to get some pogi-points for himself before the Filipino community, thus: “’Yung mga kababayan raw ho nating corrupt sa Pilipinas kagagara ng kotse, kamamahal, katutulin. Pero pagka ginustong tumakas, ang ginagamit wheelchair (Our fellow citizens, who are engaged in corruption in the Philippines, have opulent, expensive and fast cars. But if they want to escape (prosecution), they use a wheelchair).”

Some real sick joke there, not a few – including many in Aquino’s audience – deemed at the ridicule heaped on the very infirmed GMA.

And then some more – of GMA and impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona being “reunited” in jail: “…baka po mag-abot pa sila sa kulungan ng pinalitan nating Pangulo.”  More prejudgment than prediction clearly obtaining there.

It comes as no surprise then for Aquino’s backstopper – don’t ever read that in the old  Kafamfangan locution or risk libel – Mar Roxas getting his own kick out of wronging the Kapampangan.

For one, Roxas – as Transportation and Communications secretary – served as  the single biggest stumbling block to the development of the Clark Airport, if the thesis of the PGKM  were to be believed, for his alleged subservience to the “vested interests of the imperial dragons” whose Metro Manila-based businesses would be jeopardized by a fully developed Clark Airport.  (Read the banner story today.)

Then, at the regional peace and order council meeting in Oxford Hotel last week, the Interior and Local Government Secretary shamed Governor Pineda as well as  all the governors, municipal mayors and other elected officials present when he seated at the presidential table the currently unelected, government non-posted Panlilio, in effect placing him above any and all of them.

Asked about Panlilio’s presence, Roxas simply snapped: “I am one of those who believe in the leadership of Among Ed.”

“Early politicking,” cried, albeit silently, a number of those present. Roxas is LP president on-leave while Panlilio is official LP candidate for governor.

When Roxas took over the DILG, he made a ballyhoo of his taking leave of absence as LP president to preclude any conflict with his being an “impartial DILG secretary” who has to deal with local officials with different political affiliations.

“Tinatanggal ko kung anumang maaring maging conflicts, iniiwasan ko anumang maaring maging conflict nang sa ganoon magampanan ng tama ang aking trabaho," he said then.

Roxas fork-tonguing there. The real intent of his appointment at the DILG most manifest now – master the LGUs to make the LP win the 2013 elections – from the ground up to the House and Senate – and set the stage for his presidential run in 2016.

Unfortunately for Roxas, that ambition is in grave danger of early abortion. 

Aquino’s apathy and arrogance toward the Kapampangans, dutifully amplified by Roxas, translate to the LP itself, making the party senatorial ticket fair game to some vindictiveness now rising among the cabalens. 

Already a “Proposition 0-12” is being raised by some sectors and organizations, not the least of which is the broad-based PGKM, with the singular aim of preventing any LP senatorial bet making it to the winning 12 in Pampanga.  

More radical minds are advocating to sweep the LP out of any provincial, district, city or municipal post in 2013. If only as a punishing tit for Aquino’s arrogant tat.

“For they have sown the wind, so they shall reap the whirlwind.” So it is written in Hosea 8:7

Kapampangan resbak. As the street toughie calls that backlash.