Aquino's vacillating thoughts about pork

When this pork barrel issue broke out, the Palace was quick to the draw---nothing bad about it, since people are benefitting from it.

Now, it seems that even the palace feels that the entire pork barrel system is bad for the nation's health. Yesterday, President Aquino felt insulted when groups called him the "pork barrel king".

Okey if he's called a "lady's man", or a "video game freak"--just don't call him a pork barrel "king", which, to my mind, sounds like the President is some kind of a "king" of a porno film.

The palace is obviously going in the other direction, even themselves avoiding the term "pork" and using the term " savings". It's savings, then, free to do whatever we want. Wrong.

Malacanan is really missing the point in this scandal. What the public is angry about is the perception that their monies are just being used and its use abused by government, or being used in a cavalier fashion by government. They are not concerned with terminologies. Whether it's "savings", "pdaf" or "DAP", the public is angry that the government is just toying with these funds which they give to the government from the sweat of their brows.

Pinagpaguran, binababoy at pinaglalaruan lamang ng mga politiko. This is the core issue.

Now, what the palace is doing is using deflection as a strategy. Imagine, Aquino is pointing out that his predecessor misused a trillion pesos. So, what are you saying Mr. President? That what you did with our 72 billion pesos is just a fraction of what Arroyo did in her last two years? That, like Arroyo, you can practically do whatever you want with our monies, since these are "savings"?

The reason why people trust Aquino more than Arroyo is, again the perception that he is different and he wants nothing more than pursue the welfare of the Nation. With this statement yesterday, what do you think? That Aquino is no different from Arroyo then.

Obviously, safeguards have been set by Congress so that the use of these funds would be "legal" and "just". When this administration tries to justify the illegal use of these savings, it appears that this administration is showing its arrogance, not a good thing.

This is the time for the palace to explain things in a most rational and most effective way. Emotions are high against misuse of public funds, yes? Then de-escalate.