Give Aquino a break, Binay tells activists

Vice President Jejomar Binay INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Let’s give President Benigno Aquino III a break, Vice President Jejomar Binay on Wednesday told student activists behind the new form of protest called “Noynoying.”

“Stop targeting our President … Can you imagine the President not working? Even barangay captains are working, aren’t they?” Binay told reporters on the sidelines of the Chamber of Thrift Banks convention held on Wednesday at a hotel in Makati City.

Contrary to the critics’ claims, the country has a working President, he said.

Planking so yesterday

Noynoying involves standing, sitting or lying on the ground, staring into space, looking bored and doing nothing. It is a play on the President’s nickname “Noynoy.”

According to militant student leaders, like Vencer Crisostomo, chairman of Anakbayan, and Einstein Recedes, spokesperson of the Kabataan party-list group, planking, or lying face-down, is yesterday’s protest form.

The new “in” thing among activists is to laze around as if without worries, or Noynoying in youthspeak.

Crisostomo said the nearly effortless pose was a jab at the President who, he said, had done nothing to cushion the impact of or prevent the spike in crude prices and tuition rates.

‘Balm of truth’

“He has not lifted a finger, but he should be doing something. that is Noynoying, when you do nothing when in fact you have something to do,” he added.

Mr. Aquino’s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, said a “clear conscience” was the Palace response to criticisms on the President’s working style.

At a press briefing, Lacierda was asked to react to a rally just outside the gates of Malacañang yesterday, where protesters accused the 51-year-old bachelor President of spending more time in going after women than attending to the pressing concerns of the nation.

Whatever the protesters said was part of “free speech” and “that was something we will honor,” Lacierda said.

“The President will honor that. What is our answer to that? A clear conscience. The conviction that we are … serving this country, that we are performing our obligations, that we are performing our responsibilities and we will go ahead with doing what the President feels is what is right for the country,” he told reporters.

“And that’s the only answer to any criticism toward the President, toward this administration,” he said. “The balm of a clear conscience, the balm of truth is the remedy to all those criticisms.”

Best evidence

Lacierda said Mr. Aquino was not affected by all this talk and told reporters that “best evidence” to show that this had not affected him was when the Chief Executive “answered (reporters) straight and that’s his style.”

“He doesn’t take things personally. He knows that there will be criticisms. That’s part of the job and somebody who is in public service should learn how to have a what we call in law ‘pachyderm skin’ because there will really be criticisms,”’ he said.

Lacierda thanked Binay for defending the President.

Rare applause

The Vice President will represent Mr. Aquino in the Second Nuclear Security Summit to be held this weekend in South Korea. Around 50 heads of state, including US President Barack Obama who initiated the holding of a summit on nuclear security in 2009 in Washington, were expected to attend the event.

At the House of Representatives, the minority bloc gave a rare applause for the President for ignoring the latest protest gimmick.

“I would just like to commend the President for his attitude regarding Noynoying, which he just brushed off and even laughed it off,” House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said in a press conference.

“The past President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) was also like that. Even if she was called harsh names like pandak (dwarf) and bulilit (small), it was OK to her as long as she was doing her job,” Suarez said.

Deputy Minority Leader Milagros Magsaysay said the President should take Noynoying as a “challenge” to prove his critics wrong.

“It’s just a reflection of what the people think as far as how this administration delivers its basic services to the people. This Noynoying issue should be used as a tool for the administration to rethink their policies and to really address the problems of the Filipino people at its core,” Magsaysay said.

The Wall Street Journal picked up the story in its March 20 issue with this head: “Noynoying poses challenge to Philippine leader.” With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan

Originally posted at 04:31 pm | Wednesday, March 21,  2012