Friday, April 11, 2008 Editorials: Presidential call for unity
THE country’s cereal problem is starting to raise havoc among the inhabitants.
The warning that economic analysts has sounded off regarding a possible “social unrest that may pose security problems” may become palpably real when hunger begins to gnaw the bellies of people living below the poverty level.
Celebrating the 66th anniversary of the Fall of Bataan (renamed Araw ng Kagitingan), President Arroyo repeated her call for national unity, saying that “This is no time for political posturing. We need food on the table, not headlines in the newspapers.”
She called for decisive action, not political grandstanding.
She added that, “instead of indulging in too much politics, everyone should focus on improving the lot of the ordinary Filipino amid the current challenges posed by the slowdown in the United States economy, and the high prices of fuel and rice in the world market.”
Diversion
There is a touch of desperation in that statement, coming as it does from a President who has just went through a hailstorm of criticisms and rallies following accusations of blatant, though unproven, charges of graft and corruption among her key people including kin and friends.
Indeed, the obvious loss of the moral ascendancy in her leadership has weakened the force of her “call to arms” against the threatening cereal crisis and the overall economic well-being of the nation.
She has thus very slyly diverted blame of the domestic dilemma to the “slowdown in the United States economy, the high prices of fuel and rice in the world market.”
Collective will
Still, her call indicates a measure of credible imperativeness because the threat to national survival is real and could not, and should not, be ignored even by the most calloused political partisan.
There is soundness and moral force in the call, even if the caller herself may have lost the political credibility and strength to do so.
In a democracy, the imperatives of national leadership, after all, lie in the collective will of the people.
In the end, the call for unity, regardless of political orientation or religious persuasion, is aimed at ensuring national survival in the face of critical economic challenges.
