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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate Majority Leader Juan
Miguel Zubiri and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. saw
nothing wrong in President Gloria Arroyo’s taking potshots at her
critics.
But Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada
and Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. found the President’s diatribe at her
last State of the Nation Address “unbecoming.”
Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, who was one of the
objects of the President’s tart remarks, shrugged them off.
Enrile said, “Of course, if you are
criticized, you could hit back at the persons criticizing you.
That’s what politics is.”
Zubiri said the combativeness exhibited by the
President in her annual address made for an “exciting speech.”
“The President had been quiet even when he was
being criticized. Now, she expressed all her anger and that makes
for an exciting speech,” he added.
He also justified the President’s outburst.
“That was her valedictory speech, and she was entitled to it [the
outburst]. She is only human.”
Right to reply
Pimentel did not join his fellow opposition
senators in criticizing the President for haranguing her critics.
“That’s her right to reply. That’s why I do not take that
against her.”
Pimentel is author of the controversial
right-to-reply bill that requires media to give equal space and time
to persons criticized in previous reports. The Senate has already
passed the bill on third and final reading, while the House is
considering its version on second reading.
Estrada took umbrage at the President’s
statement that she should not be accused by her critics by persons
who ought to be in prison, “especially those who have been in
prison.”
He said that he and his father, former President
Joseph Estrada, had been imprisoned on charges that he claimed they
were not guilty of. He was cleared as accessory to plunder.
“And yet, I did not receive an apology from
this administration, and neither did my co-accused, Atty. Edward
Serapio who served time for about three years only to be
acquitted,” Sen. Estrada added.
The former President was convicted but was
eventually granted executive clemency.
Estrada said that despite their “wrongful”
imprisonment, he and his father would not threaten President Arroyo
“or her minions” with jail time although he hinted that she
would be charged in court, he said.
“She must account and answer for all the
wrongdoings she has made in her nine years of misgovernance, for
which she now continues to ignore,” he added.
Villar said he did not agree with the
President’s pugnacious statements against her critics. “I think
somebody prodded her. Or perhaps, she thought this was her last SONA
and she might not have another chance to reply to her critics.”
Cheaper medicine
The President said her critic’s version of the
Cheaper Medicine Law was weaker and flawed. She also jabbed at the
critic without mentioning his name, who was obviously Roxas, that if
he wanted to get a higher position, he should just do it, get things
done, and don’t say bad words in public.
“If my version is weaker, why did she approve
it? Why didn’t she veto it?” Roxas asked.
He charged that the President’s heart was
against implementing the Cheaper Medicines Law although he thanked
the President for cutting by 50 percent the retail price of 21 most
prescribed medicines “after a two-month delay.”
On his saying cuss words in a rally, Roxas said
that was uttered at the spur of the moment. He said that he was
merely voicing the sentiments of the people against the
administration.
House defense
House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Tuesday
defended the seemingly “combative” annual address of President
Arroyo.
Nograles claimed that the critics being alluded
to in the speech “have twisted the meaning of her
pronouncements.”
“The President is just like all of us,” he
added. “She also feels the pain and the frustration with the
relentless effort to malign her and belittle the hard work that she
had done for our nation. But there is no denying that she is a
leader with a purpose and one who is prepared to defend to the hilt
what is right to promote public welfare.”
The 57-minute speech delivered on Monday mainly
focused on the state of the Philippine economy under the strains of
the global economic crisis while lambasting at least three
identifiable opposition figureheads and critics.
But Nograles said all the negative reactions of
her critics were expected under our vibrant democratic system.
“Anyway, sinister designs are not meant to
triumph,” the Speaker added. “But most of the attacks on the
presidency are not doing good for the country.”
What the leadership was concerned about,
Nograles stressed, was the welfare of the majority in the rural
areas who toil the fields and break their backs to feed the millions
of Filipinos, including those who continuously land in the front
pages of newspapers and prime time broadcast programs hiding behind
the cloak of righteousness and patriotism.
-- With Report from Frank Lloyd Tiongson
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