“Tama na, sobra na?”
“Out of context,” said Liberal Party stalwart and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
“Sour-graping,” said Western LP secretary general and Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento.
These were among the immediate responses to presidential challenger Jejomar Binay’s use of a popular slogan of the anti-dictatorship struggle led by President Benigno Aquino III’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, when he announced his resignation from the Cabinet last week.
Abad said that Binay “missed the important historical context” of the anti-dictatorship slogan, emphasizing that the battlecry was used to drive away the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, and his family.
“It was rather careless of him to say that, because the logical next phrase is palitan na (change him),” Abad told the Inquirer on Friday.
Abad said it was because of this lack of context that President Aquino was “hurting” over Binay’s attacks.
Sarmiento said Binay’s attacks on the Aquino administration were “mere sour-graping,” adding that Binay lacked the credibility to be the opposition figurehead.
He said Binay’s statements after quitting the Cabinet were “patently dubious coming from a person who used to heap praise on President Aquino’s leadership.”
“In his keynote speech at the Philippine Capital Markets Investment Forum in May 2014, he even talked about the country’s unparalleled economic growth,” Sarmiento said. Nikko Dizon and DJ Yap
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