Right after winning as President and appointing himself as secretary of the Department of Agriculture, PBBM dropped by the central office of that department to have a chit-chat or small talk with the senior officials there. Having that small talk was reprehensible considering that his constituents were suffering. He should have hit the ground running. Hard work, if he was capable of that, right away.
With the obvious dilly-dallying attitude, the effects are now being felt. The people expressed it in a recent survey by Pulse Asia where it appeared the President’s approval rating went down by two digits. A whopping 15 points.
Months earlier his rating was very high. The masses who overwhelmingly voted for him were still going gaga for their President. He could not go wrong. Any negative comments on his way of governance were immediately shot down. It is different this time as people now are feeling the result of his bad policies or poor governance. Prices of basic goods will continue to rise. Corruption is still prevalent and will continue to be so every where. The price cap on rice will soon result in more disgruntlement and there would be lower rice production in the long run as the real reasons for the shortage are not being faced head-on. Cooperativism is in the low priority list. There is not enough support for MSMEs thus not enough employment opportunities are being generated, The worst of them all is the lack of policies to attain a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth or to lessen the gap between the rich and the poor. There is a lot more.
The net effect is now hitting the people where it really hurts, their stomach. And things will get worse. The reduction on PBBM’s survey ratings might just be an introduction to a snowballing down trend. To arrest such would require immediate actions to alleviate the people’s sufferings.
His recent statements to the effect that he understands the difficulties people are facing appear to be mere lip service devoid of sincerity.
There is a positive effect though. People are now waking up from their stupidity. We deserve better governance so we must collectively clamor for it.
Will the President effectively respond? If not, the present situation might mean the beginning of a gathering storm.**