black, red ribbons flutter at Iloilo Hall of Justice


 There is no yellow ribbon but only black and red fluttering at the steel railings of the Iloilo Hall of Justice.

If at all, the silent message those ribbons tell and the two streamers fluttering alongside the black and red ribbons bespeak only one message: that P-Noy missed the real state of the nation in his state-of-the-nation-address (SONA) July 28.

PNoy skirted the issue of spiraling costs of living and the diminution of the income of salaried workers, court employees included. What he did mention was the “success” his administration attained in the field of peace and order, the rehabilitation of Yolanda ravaged areas, and the benefits that poor Filipinos and indigenous peoples (IPs) reaped under his watch as if he is referring to another country or at the Philippines in the future.

One streamer cries for salary increase and opposition to the government’s penchant to tax employees' benefits on top of the income tax on salaries; the other decry government’s move to emasculate the judiciary.

Government, not just court employees’ for instance, used to get more than P15,000 every end of the year in “personnel incentive bonus” on top of the 13th month pay, taken from the savings of the respective office.

This year and the years to come, it will only be P5,000 as PNoy and his caboodle so ordained.

A week before the SONA, PNoy spoke live on broadcast in response to the en banc decision of the Supreme Court striking down his DAP or Disbursement Acceleration Program being unconstitutional.

In response, apparently to cajole the judiciary, PNoy's lieutenants in Congress announce they will examine the Judicial Development Fund and will amend it if in essence is works the same way as pork barrel. (The High Court already shot down the two species of pork, one called PDAF, the other, of course, its younger cousin DAP.)

PNoy thought he could rally the people behind him since the two kinds of pork were allegedly used to response to calamities and fund poverty-reduction program of his administration: he asked them to deluge the country with yellow -- ribbons, confetti, emblems and what-not.

In Iloilo City, not even his most die-hard fans followed him. One of his ardent admirers, lawyer Dan Cartagena, declared his disenchantment of PNoy.

The black and red ribbons fluttering at the steel railings of the Iloilo Hall of Justice remind PNoy that Iloilo is not going yellow.








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