On Mary Jane Veloso--what's the fuzz? And on the "should haves" that we expect from Pnoy

The president's men are all over town, trying to stir up the public to acknowledge what President Aquino reportedly did for Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina convicted to die by firing squad in Indonesia due to illegal drugs possession. That last minute conversation by Aquino with Indonesian president Widodo spared Veloso from death.

Are we praising this president for doing the right thing at the last minute? Are we so desperate that even such acts are to be praised? Are we now saying that our standards in leadership have shrunk so low that we still describe this president as a "good one" because of his "last two minute" appeal?

Are we praising Aquino for acting so late in the game? Then are we encouraging him to do the "right thing" even at this late in his administration even though these would be considered as band-aid solutions?

Veloso was arrested last 2010. Five years later, and when Indonesia announced that she's one of the ten convicted drug offenders in that country, did our government intervened from the very highest levels and after Veloso had the scare of her life when she was transferred to the "execution island" pleading to government to ask Widodo to spare her because she was a victim of illegal recruitment. That fact alone should have been identified a year or two years or three years or even five years ago when she was arrested. Imagine, Veloso waited for five long years before government thought of a way of sparing her from execution. That very simple identification of her as a victim than a willing accomplice in a very serious case of drug possession and transportation into Indonesia should have been presented a very long time ago, in the courts, rather than involve two heads of state.

No. There is no reason why this President is to be praised, for a job that he and his army of legal minds in the bureaucracy is supposed to do a long time ago.

This applies to every and all things that this President should have done five years ago. Aquino should have used his powers to build industries in our country to make this economic growth permanent. Aquino should have stopped the implementation  of PDAF and DAP for the benefit of Congressmen, Senators and LGU officials five years ago. Aquino should have rooted out graft and corruption from its very roots five or four years ago when he was still getting a very high approval and trust ratings by cleansing the bureaucracy of misfits.

If I were to define this administration, this Tuwid na Daan which has been the slogan that drove us in a frenzied fashion for the last five years, is, not just me, but many Filipinos, an empty one which led us to nowhere but to different and differing roads.