101 Chaos

What happens after the 100 day honeymoon period? Total chaos, says a long-time political observer whom I wont mention here.

"People are just waiting for the honeymoon period to end, and afterwards, they will start their anti-government campaigns. " says the analyst who is a former PMAer and now, a strategic marketer.

The signs are all there, adds the analyst. For example, the military. Unknown to many, segments of the military are slowly disengaging themselves from the establishment. Reasons? Defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin's leadership style. Gazmin, says the analyst, is under extreme trouble due to his personalistic and often cronyistic style. When Gazmin assumed power, he reportedly brought along with him, his own people. Nothing wrong, except that these people are known profiteers during the time of Arroyo. They reportedly profitted from defense arms deals.

Is'nt strange that there are now, numerous demands from certain quarters for the Aquino administration to again, beef up its military arsenal and again, re-arm and re-stock? If you look at the defense department's budget, there is already an annual budget for the acquisition of new arms and ammunition. Why is there a conscious effort to procure more arms and more bullets? Are these items not being addressed properly in the budget entry for the DND?

Reason is very simple--there is a new "cacique" group of arms dealers and suppliers who are now salivating for more ammo and war materiel deals from this administration.

There is also another trouble brewing in the department. Due to lack of funds, says one source, there is a possibility that retirement funds will not be dispensed properly or in full this year and the next year. Retiring soldiers will have to wait as the department reportedly try to know what happened to the retirement funds.

These are just some of the many problems now being encountered by the new administration in the military establishment. Another one is the so-called "favoritism" being shown by the new administration in choosing or deployment of personnel. Many "generals" are said to be displeased with how the current AFP leadership and the DND handles the sensitive issue of succession.

That's in the military front. How about in the police? Many policemen, especially those belonging to the SWAT are angry against President Aquino's numerous pronouncements questioning their capabilities. Some of the SWAT members I talked with says that the Luneta incident is just an isolated one. They were just doing their level best. However, President Aquino continues to lick their wounds and trying to shame them even further by publicly announcing that SAF is better than SWAT.

Instead of protecting the institution of the police, Aquino continues to shame, berate and blame them for the fiasco, that is, the Luneta hostage crisis. Many cops say that incident was a clear case of failure of leadership. The cops were just following orders. If the order was given, and it was clearly a bad one, the cops are not in the position to question. They are only there to execute the order.

I also talked with many pro-Aquino groups who are now, slowly distancing themselves from the administration. These are well-meaning and patriotic friends who have dedicated their entire lives for the struggle.

Many of them are disgusted by the way this administration has conducted itself from day one. Its braggadocio has caused these many problems for the country. Many of the staff members right now inside the palace, says one of the closest before to Pnoy, are braggarts. These people are enjoying themselves in power after being booted out from the previous administration. Others, well, this is the first time that they got themselves to the corridors of power, and according to sources, are erring big-time.

Clearly, there is now a lingering perception of total chaos, of this administration unable to really hold power properly, of this administration messing things up big-time and of this administration totally missing the point and diverting from the right path.

If I remember those promises which Pnoy told the crowd in his inauguration, the right path is the moral one. The righteous path is owing the responsibility and correcting the wrongs.

Pnoy has to put his foot down and ask his non-performing assets to leave his administration. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth whenever people see Pnoy trying hopelessly to lie just to protect his people from negative attacks.

The People expect Pnoy to be their leader and protect them from inefficiency caused by some people in his administration.

For example, Pnoy should fire the people who thought about that Harapan program. It is truly mind-boggling to think that an expert communications man would actually "feed his principal" to the dogs so to speak while everything sizzles still. Whoever pushed for that ridiculous idea should be shot and his body thrown in the Pasig river.

The question really is---will these problems go away? Of course, they will go away. Will the administration salvage its sagging reputation? Of course it will. Will there be enough time for it to do what it intends to do? That is the BIG question.

By the way, I saw former defense secretary Norberto Gonzales at EDSA Shangrila lobby yesterday (Thursday), talking with a lot of people.