Bishop: ‘Heartless’ Aquino twisting truth with ‘tanim-bala’ comment
A Catholic bishop hit President Benigno Aquino III for supposedly being “heartless” and “out of touch” with the plight of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as shown by his recent statement on the incidents of “tanim-bala” (bullet planting) which have transpired in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
In an interview over Radyo Veritas on Tuesday, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Committee on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples Chairman and Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said that Aquino’s statement only shows how his government supposedly ignores the infamous issue.
“Dito natin makikita, kitang-kita na ang ating pangulo ay out of the situation sa laglag bala. Either na siya ay misinformed or sanitized yung information na ibinibigay sa kanya. Hindi siya nakababad sa ating mga OFW.”
“Dito makikita natin na walang [siyang] awa, walang habag at walang puso sa manggagawang nangingibang bansa,” Santos said.
(It is evident that the president is out of touch regarding the “laglag-bala” issue. It’s either he is misinformed or he only receives sanitized information regarding the issue. He is not immersed or involved in the plight of our OFWs. We can see here that he is not compassionate, not merciful and heartless towards our fellow Filipinos who are working abroad.)
Santos even accused Aquino of twisting the truth regarding the tanim-bala issue by dismissing it as a mere propaganda intended to malign the government.
“Ang ginawa nila ngayon, sinasabi nila na sabotahe ‘yan sa ating government, [na] propaganda ‘yan, politics ‘yan. Totoong nangyayari, hindi sabotage ‘yan. Nag-diversionary tactics sila kasi dedma [sila noon] tapos ngayon humahanap ng palusot,” the bishop said.
(What they’re doing now is they are saying that this is sabotage against the government; this is propaganda and politics. But these incidents actually occurred; it’s not sabotage. They are just creating diversionary tactics because they were just ignoring it before and now, they’re looking for an excuse.)
Speaking to reporters after attending the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur Sunday night, Aquino said that he is not convinced that an organized “tanim-bala” scheme exists at Naia.
He also downplayed the controversy by citing the relatively small number of people victimized by the scheme.
The President then proceeded to blame the media for sensationalizing the issue.
“Like out of 10 (people) who will go to the airport, how many will be victimized? For every 10—two, three? That is not what happened. It was sensationalized and there were those who benefited to sensationalize it,” Aquino said.
