'WE'RE NOT IDIOTS, MR. PRESIDENT!

Consciously or not, President Aquino himself has indirectly admitted that he has done VERY LITTLE, if not nothing.

In a speech in Kalibo, Aklan, yesterday, Pnoy appealed for public support once more, saying his ‘boxing match’ has just begun after a year in office.

Take note, boys and girls, HAS JUST BEGUN. Not FULL SPEED AHEAD, Not even SO FAR, SO GOOD! Nothing. It has only just begun.

So what the hell did he do during his first year in office?

By admitting that his ‘boxing match’ has just started, Pnoy is telling us we can’t expect any dramatic gains in the major problems which have been plaguing us -- sky-high prices of food and fuel and cost of education, housing, hunger, unemployment, peace and order, adequate health care, etc.

Pnoy’s telling us the tough times we’re suffering now will CONTINUE UNTIL he finds ways to ease, if not solve, the problems. In other words, we’ll have to wait INDEFINITELY!

What’s worse is Pnoy himself is TRYING TO DECEIVE the people, especially the poor on the value of some of his programs to drum up public support.

Think about this: In distributing checks for the conditional cash transfer program in Kalibo yesterday, Pnoy said “the P1,400 to P1,500 stipend for the qualified families every month could help them keep their children in school, avail of health services and improve their lives in the long run.“

If you divide P1,500 by the average 30 days a month, that’s P50 a day.

Anybody tell me, please, how can P50 a day can help keep kids in school, avail of health services and improve the lives of the beneficiaries.

What is the lowest tuition available for kids? Or the cheapest consultancy fee charged by doctors, or laboratory tests rates?

If anyone can point to any school or doctor and clinic, or hospital, in which P1,500 a month is enough to pay for all the payables, please share it with everyone so we can also save.

The P1,500 can help improve lives in the long run? We’re not illiterates who don’t even know how to count, Mr. President. Neither are we patients at the National Center for Mental Health who have lost touch with reality.

The cheapest variety of rice costs a little more than P20 a kilo. So other than ready-to-eat noodles, what decent and nutritious foodstuff can be bought and cooked for just P30?

If for food alone, the P1,500 is not even realistically enough for food, especially if the recipient has more than one child, how can it help keep kids in school or eventually improve lives in the long run?

GIVE US A BREAK, MR. PRESIDENT! We’re not IDIOTS! 30