Thursday, September 9, 2010

Defining moments

The Philippine President stated in his press conference today that his administration will not be defined by the disastrous hostage crisis last August that claimed the lives of Chinese tourists. Unfortunately, with still less than one hundred days logged in since his inauguration, there seems to be no other major event that caught the attention of both Filipinos and foreigners, including that "major-major" event following the hostage drama where Ms Philippines was 4th Runner-up in the Ms Universe pageant. By event I refer to both accomplishments, incidents or even appointments from June 2010. The crisis seemed to be an abrupt end to what may have been an uneasy honeymoon period, wherein critics have raised questions about almost every move the administration was making including the appointments to sensitive positions of persons regarded as the "new" Kamag-anak, Inc. - Classmates, Inc.

Is it a case of malas (misfortune) or maybe the mishandling of the press? Is it an early indication of incompetence or unpreparedness for certain people in government? We can only hope that it is not and that it is more of an example of people being caught off-balance rather than being ill-prepared for such situations. Perhaps it is time to focus on other more important issues including one that was big enough to sway minds away from Ondoy due to the horror it generated - the Maguindanao Massacre. Solving this case and giving justice to the aggrieved will surely erase doubts about the competence and commitments of this administration.

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