End of an Era

07/02/2016 10:02:56 AM

Photo credits: INQUIRER

Thursday noon was another written day in the history books. Switching gears, as Micheal Cole once said, we just ended a new chapter and will be writing on a new one; and we're talking about administrations of both Presidents Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte.

But first, let's take a rewind to six years ago. Where were you on 30 June 2010? 

It was then-a rainy Wenesday morning. I was on my way to my classmate's dormitory at Sampaloc, Manila. The streets was clear and quite; seemingly everyone glued to their TV sets and witnessed the oath-taking of Aquino at Quirino Grandstand.

Fast-forward to 2016, as the son of democratic icon Corazon Aquino stepped down, all I can say was it was a rocky road for the president. While some hailed him for economic growth, there are other matters which his administration failed to comply. There were a bunch of massacres and territorial dispute to headline Aquino administration's flaws.

There's no question about Benigno being a good economical leader, but the problem may have been lied more on his several henchmen for being incompetent. With exception for some like the late Jesse Robredo, these people appeared to be working at the wrong job. Transportation system's gone fucked up. Farmers still deprived for land reform matters. And when calamities desolated some parts of the country, they were playing the blame game instead of going hand-in-hand for rehabilitation. 

Some cases from the past administrations resurfaced; making the recent one getting asked “where you guys been sleeping from?” Thus, an irony for being blunt on ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo upon his several speeches.

Still, mad props for Benigno after all of this time. In fact, six years may be considered a short-term for anyone to make a change in this country at all. You have to give credit to his era for passsing the almost-never-ending Reproductive Health law. If not for his signature right there, we might be seeing the health sector, the legislatures, and the Catholic Church going neck-to-neck for its progress.

And despite gunning more on his political enemies, his comabt against corruption was a babystep towards the change. (Though I wish we could've seen more fairness on this.)

The 4Ps program had its good intentions. It's just some of the people from both the government and the lower classes were abusive which tainted its image.

You see? There was a fair share of ups and downs for the Aquino administration. However, the flow of the story became its problem: good start, bad finish. And it has gone cynical for quite some time. Sure, we can say there's no perfect president at all. But as the power-holders of democracy, could we do more of checks-and-balances from now on instead of shunning politics right there and then?

Nevertheless, we could only wish for things to be different – and better – come 30 June 2022, when the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines step down from his post.

Author: slickmaster | © 2016 september twenty-eight productions