Delusions of grandeur

It was a day reserved for past memories and deep reflection on how far we’ve come from that fateful moment on the tarmac when hope had been killed by a single bullet to the back of the head by an assassin whose masterminds remain unidentified and scot-free. Ninoy Aquino would have been the leader we needed then. The one we had been suffering through for almost two decades had sunk the economy, robbed us blind, imposed a violent and cruel dictatorship and transformed the country into a nation of cowards.

There was so much to remember as so many had by now forgotten. There was also so much to reflect on as there are so many more distractions that keep us from the things that matter. Too many fires to douse. Too many emergencies, troubled as we are, preoccupied and busy wondering where the next meal might come from and what other necessity will rise in price.

Last week Benigno Aquino III seized the moment. Fancying himself the curator of profound and heroic legacies he accidentally inherited from iconic parents, to this day he still does not realize how undeserving he is of their heroism.

Where Ninoy Aquino was brilliant and driven, his son languished in mediocrity and laziness. Where Cory Aquino exemplified motherhood and an encompassing empathy for the victimized and trodden, her son epitomized the exact opposite.

Note the focal points of both parents against the serial counterpoints that dragged into the mud what legacies were left us by Ninoy and Cory Aquino.

August 21 enshrined Ninoy’s heroism while the morality play between Cory and a dictator in 1986 is perhaps her greatest legacy. Against such memories note the milestones against which we remember the incumbency of their unfortunate heir.

Noynoy Aquino started his presidency with an act that disrespected the Supreme Court. Later he would do worse to that institution. Within days of his unusual inaugural he would issue two different executive orders with the same number. Within weeks he would insult the dead by laughing and giggling like a schoolgirl where their blood had been unnecessarily spilled in a mismanaged massacre in the same place where he had taken his oath. The bungled operation that caused an international scandal for the world to see was merely a prelude.

From there on his governance went downhill.

Labeled “The Pork Barrel King,” during his reign patronage politics would sink to unprecedented depths with Aquino’s signature presidential Disbursement Acceleration Program and his coterie of “Kaklase, Kaibigan and Kabarilan” — a novel take on the precedent “Kamag-anak Incorporated” similarly borne from familial DNA.

The instances of bungling and buffoonery that characterized his administration’s governance were legion, spanning from ineptitude to corruption, doubled down several times and constantly repeated. When his political party sought to perpetuate themselves they spun the fiction that their competence necessitated a 20-year period. At least.

Last week, as the nation remembered Ninoy Aquino, contrasts could not be denied where part of the Ninoy legacy lay tarnished by the revelation of the corruption culture that characterized the last Aquino administration.

Declaring he would lead the campaign to oust the reformist administration that replaced his, Aquino seemed almost delusional and alienated from reality. When he was chosen as a presidential bet in 2010 it was not out of merit but out of crass political convenience. Cory Aquino had recently passed away and the Liberal Party’s contender was a born loser wallowing in fifth place.

When the ousted Chief Justice lost her job, she took to the stage and declared herself among the opposition. Her claim to the throne never gelled. The same with the Vice President who installed herself as the leader of the opposition when a loss at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal seemed imminent.

Both were uninspiring and tainted. Confronted with a slew of corruption charges, Aquino similarly takes to the podium.