Running priest to Aquino: Sack incompetents in gov’t

TAYABAS CITY—Before he starts a sedate life as a monk, activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes offered a piece of unsolicited advice to President Aquino—cut off ties with incompetent KKK (kakampi-kaklase-kabarilan) and kamag-anak (relatives).

“This is unsolicited advice to President Aquino. Between now and the end of his term, he should start cleansing the government of his incompetent friends and relatives,” said Reyes in a chance interview here on Thursday.

Popularly known as the “running priest” for his passion in initiating protest runs on a variety of social and political issues, the priest urged Mr. Aquino to put competent people in his administration that could help him chart the tuwid na daan (right direction) he promised to deliver.

Reyes said while he believed in the sincerity of Mr. Aquino, he is starting to see crooked ways leading to anomalies in government.

He said keeping incompetent relatives of the President in government is defeating Mr. Aquino’s campaign for good governance.

“If P-Noy won’t be tough, he could not straighten up those following the crooks’ path. In the end, he will be the one who will be involved in anomalies,” Reyes said.

He said there were just too many people in government who want to maintain the crooked ways of the past.

“P-Noy is up against the people who have been using the system to their advantage,” added Reyes.

He said Mr. Aquino could still return to his tuwid na daan policy but only if he was willing to make sacrifices. “He should readily say no to all who want to take advantage of their ties with him,” the priest said.

The activist priest said he would soon enter the convent of a religious order to fulfill a vow as a novice. “But I will be back. When I return, hopefully, there would be less causes and protests for me to run.”