Carvajal: Closure first

LISTENING to Rep. Edcel Lagman’s anti-Sona, I felt anger rise and seethe inside. I hoped he was only sour-graping, but I could not help thinking it was devious of him to make President Aquino the villain for delivering a “partisan press release” sans a “road map.” PNoy might not be hero but he definitely is not a villain yet either. It is simply too early for him to deserve Mr. Lagman’s demolition job.

Disagreement is fine but to be frothing- in-the mouth scathing about it makes one wonder about Mr. Lagman’s motive. If he has this country’s welfare at heart, why bristle at the President’s revelations, which were less shocking, anyway, than many misdeeds we already know the previous administration committed?

And if some of the revelations lacked basis, why not simply demand for proof instead of implying that the President should have glossed over the alleged anomalies?

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Why make such a fiery fuss about a road map? In the first place, there was a road map.

It was not to Mr. Lagman’s liking, however, because, following the voters’ mandate, PNoy started where he had by bulldozing away the obstacles the previous administration had placed on the road. In the second place, whatever happened to the highly touted road map of the mealy-mouthed former president? As the whole world knows, nothing happened because corruption compromised it all the way.

And why was Mr. Lagman so hyperbolic as to say “the emperor had no clothes” when PNoy’s program for such critical issues as education, peace and order, corruption and poverty were all spelled out in the Sona? How can he claim the minority has nothing to support when the President said he wants additional years to basic education, resume peace talks with the NPA and the MILF and stamp out corruption as a basis for fighting poverty?

We have to bring closure to human rights issues that PNoy also failed to mention, like who killed Ninoy and what happened to Fr. Romano and Ensign Pestaño. Unless the truth comes out and the culprits are brought to justice, the culture of impunity will continue to decimate us and no road map can help the poor and obscure in this country.

We would do well to be reminded that this country, for once, needs to unite with the President in his mandate to slay the ghosts of our past. We cannot anymore “forgive and forget” for the sake of unity. Rather, we must unite to bring closure to the sins of our leaders (business, political and religious) against the masses of poor Filipinos so we all, not just a few, can lead peaceful and prosperous lives.

For now, at least, the call is to criticize to improve but not to destroy. The former is love of country while the latter is devious positioning for the next elections.