During the weekly forum at the Senate on Thu, Apr 7, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile called President Noynoy Aquino’s administration as a “three-day presidency.” He explained that this was because the administration takes three days before they act on even the most pressing matters such as the alleged laundering of US$81 million stolen funds into the Philippine financial system and the Kidapawan City incident.
“The forum was supposed to focus on the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s (AMLC) handling of the money laundering scheme, which is being investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee,” reports Maila Ager on Inquirer.net.
Enrile had exclaimed, “My God, they are sleeping! This is a three-day presidency e. Three days sa Mamasapano, three days sa ‘Yolanda’ three days… three days sila umaksyon, ganun din sa Kidapawan (Three days during Mamasapano, three days during Yolanda… It took them three days before they acted on these matters. It also happened in Kidapawan incident).”
The report noted: “Enrile was referring to the botched Mamasapano operation on January 25 last year that left 44 elite policemen and several others dead, the Supertyphoon Yolanda in November 2013 that hit parts of the country and claimed thousands of lives and the recent violent dispersal of Kidapawan farmers that left three dead and dozens injured.”
On the Kidapawan incident, Enrile slammed the President for not acting immediately to prevent the violent dispersal of the farmers. He quipped, “What did they do the first day that there’s a gathering like that, that size? Then you ask yourself, what’s happening there?”
Enrile added that if he were President, he said he would have “flown immediately to Kidapawan and distributed rice to the farmers.” Then, he said, he would have also done a probe to find out “whether that’s it was a legitimate rally or just a contrived rally aimed to cause conflict and provoke an encounter.”
