President Aquino’s guilt pangs

A true leader takes the blame for the failure of a work or project, especially if he masterminded it.

He doesn’t put the blame on anybody. He just says, “I’m sorry for the fiasco. I take full responsibility.”

Not President Noy who passes on the blame for the massacre of 44 police commandos in Maguindanao province to his subordinates.

P-Noy’s No. 1 scapegoat is Chief Supt. Getulio Napeñas, who was relieved as commander of the elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police.

In his televised address to the nation about the fiasco, the President talked about the lack of coordination by the PNP with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

He was implying that he ordered Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa to make the proper coordination between the two armed organizations but that somewhere along the way, his directive was forgotten.

My source in Malacañang said Ochoa, like Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and PNP officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, didn’t know about the operation.

Only the President, suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima and Napeñas knew about the top secret operation.

In his speech, P-Noy seemed to imply that the military didn’t come to the help of the beleaguered police commandos, resulting in their massacre.

The President should have taken a leaf from US President Harry S. Truman’s book.

It was Truman who popularized the saying: “The buck stops here.” It means that when things go wrong with the nation, he alone should take the blame.

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I hear whispers about how so many Cabinet members and even Palace functionaries are so disappointed with the President they want to quit.

They regret serving a weak leader who appears to be always running away from responsibilities, or so I hear.

One Palace functionary was said to have told another that he was so ashamed of himself working for P-Noy.

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There are calls from some quarters for the President to step down as a result of his weak leadership.

Hold your horses, fellows!

If P-Noy resigns, it would be like taking the country out of the frying pan into the fire.

From an honest but weak leadership to an exceedingly corrupt one—do you like that?

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President Erap, whom we booted out of office for receiving money from the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” looked like a piker compared to the one who replaced him, President Gloria.

The husband-and-wife tandem of Gloria and Mike Arroyo allegedly robbed the Filipino people blind.

Now, do you want history repeating itself?

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More financial aid is pouring in for the families of the slain 44 SAF troopers.

Aside from the usual financial benefits for government troopers killed in the line of duty—like monthly pensions for their dependents—the families of the “Fallen 44” will receive P200,000 each from the President’s Social Fund.

There is also money collected from public donations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the PNP.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad was quoted as saying: “I think, very generously, the government is going to attend to the needs of the families they left behind.”

I hate to repeat myself as I’ve already pointed this out in the last column. What about the other government troopers who also died fighting Moro guerrillas and New People’s Army rebels?

For example, 19 Army Special Forces soldiers were massacred by Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Al-Barka, Basilan province.

Why was the P-Noy administration not as generous to them?

The answer is simple: In this latest incident, P-Noy wants to assuage his pangs of guilt.