Aquino’s abusive acolytes

As we ended 2018, the nightcap served us by way of banner headlines was a bitter reminder of the continuing folly perpetuated by the previous government of Benigno Aquino III. It is a curse characterized by brazen impunity amid a reign of colossal corruption and bungling stupidity.

In the news a political family, both father and son of a local government dynasty, had mauled an officer of the law, a person of authority albeit in the nocturnal hierarchy of warlords and kingpins, someone far below and considered by politicians as their personal pawns. That the son is the husband of an Aquino Kaklase, Kaibigan at Kabarilan (KKK) appointee now facing about 30 criminal charges, some involving the tragic and excruciatingly painful deaths of innocent young children, simply deepens this profligate phenomenon of political pathos.

On a grander scale, while the headlines seemed like a mere footnote, they exemplify the abusive character of Aquino’s acolytes and sycophants drawn from incredibly corrupt KKK entitlements. Nowhere among classmates, friends and shooting buddies is there any requisite competence or even brains. In its place, however, there were gross gonads and gall.

The attitude in the mauling incident mirrors Aquino’s own towards braver men who sacrifice to keep the peace, specifically in a tragedy where he sent 44 police officers to their deaths.

He declined to save them when he could, callously allowing them to die to hide his stupidity.

Worse, he failed to take responsibility for his recklessness. To aggravate matters, on several occasions after their massacre, he would have the temerity to disrespect their heroism.

Under Aquino, the waters did not rise above its source. Note how others within his KKK circle had likewise used what powers were vested in them to vilify people they considered bureaucratically inferior and subservient.

In the massacre of 44 policemen, Aquino is accused of illegally empowering a suspended police general to command a clandestine and haphazardly planned operation. The general, who was once among his security detail, now shares Aquino’s criminal complicity in the massacre.

During his term, Aquino’s Justice secretary who oversaw the jail system is now accused of using her office to employ prisoners in the illegal drug trade to earn campaign funding for a run under Aquino’s senatorial ticket.

She was not the only one whose activities ran parallel to the 2016 presidential campaign. Aquino’s Health secretary, complicit with his Budget secretary, is accused of surreptitiously siphoning humongous funds to finance a deadly vaccination program that would lead to the deaths of young children, thus ravaging their families who entrusted their health and welfare to these officials.

Another in Aquino’s KKK circle had likewise treated young children and the poor like unsightly curbside trash.

Here we see the same loathing towards the weak.

During a papal visit, to deny the Pope a glimpse of the dire and degrading conditions, street people particularly the very young were subjected to such indignity under the Aquino administration. On the pretext of a workshop on cash dole outs, Aquino’s Social Welfare secretary oversaw their forced removal and virtual incarceration in an out-of-town, out-of-sight facility. To ensure acquiescence, some were threatened with arrests if they refuse to be herded.

In the transport sector such attitude combined with incompetence and insidious corruption led to the reckless endangerment of commuters where at least one person has been dismembered.

Not only did Aquino’s Transport secretary tank a critical commuter railway maintenance contract, but that secretary’s equally incompetent successor eventually awarded the contract to an unqualified operator.

Aquino’s bungling Transport secretary’s perception of those he considers inferior to him was clearly displayed and recorded in all its shameless insincerity when, after being assigned the Department of the Interior and Local Government portfolio, he harassed a beleaguered local executive to relinquish the reins to him declaring that partisan politics was an undeniable impetus.

Behind such abuse, from the mauling of policemen to declaring ascendancy on the basis of partisanship, there festers a delusional sense of self-worth. It is in part due to elitism and a belief that the lives of others are worthless. It’s sociopathic. And Aquino and his acolytes were full of it.