THE FREEMAN EDITORIAL: AQUINO SHOULD KEEP ALBAY GOV IN LINE
MANILA, JULY 30, 2011 - (STAR) THE FREEMAN Updated July 30, 2011 12:00 AM - President Aquino should cut Albay Governor Joey Salceda down to size instead of ignoring or even dignifying his uncalled for and off tangent rantings. Not doing anything undermines his own policies and lends credence to perceptions he is soft on his friends even when they err.
When typhoon Juaning visited great destruction in Luzon, especially in Albay, it is easy to see local leaders like Salceda getting distressed. Their blaming Pagasa is even understandable under the circumstances. After all, flogging a scapegoat does help sometimes.
But for Salceda to go on TV and say Pagasa should have listened to him when he suggested that it place Albay under a storm signal, that is already going overboard in his understanding of his own authority. Not even Aquino can dictate on Pagasa what bulletins to issue the public.
Salceda claims that while conditions in Albay already indicated bad weather, the Pagasa did not include his province in the list of places it placed under storm warning. More prudent leaders, of course, would have reacted to the prevailing conditions, with or without Pagasa.
But Salceda apparently found it better to bitch than act. So while others saw no need for a weatherman to tell them which way the wind blows and chose to act promptly, Salceda decided to wait for Pagasa until it was too late. And thus his province suffered greatly as a result.
And now he blames Pagasa. He refuses to see that, as he continues to bitch, it becomes increasingly clear that the problem is getting to be less and less about the weather and more and more about character and leadership qualities.
It is not just presumptuous but arrogant as well for Salceda to think the governorship vests in him the power and the authority to hijack the functions of clearly distinct, separate and highly specialized agencies such as the Pagasa.
Yet this is not the first time Salceda outgrew his breeches. After tensions with China broke over the Spratlys, he preempted Aquino government initiatives and official responses by unilaterally calling for a boycott of Chinese products, thus undermining its foreign policies.
Salceda is a midnight Liberal Party inductee so there ought to be little love lost, if at all, if Aquino decides correctly to cut Salceda down to size. Ordering the Pagasa investigated not only dignifies the folly, it makes Aquino look limp after having just praised it in his SONA.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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