loria Arroyo hit
the ground running upon arrival from her 10-day visit to the United States,
rushing off to Baler, Quezon after a few hours rest in the Palace to attend an
event marking a belatedly recognized but significant event in Philippine
history. This was the surrender to revolutionary forces of a Spanish garrison
which had not heard Spain had already ceded the territory to the Americans under
the Treaty of Paris seven months before.
We are not knocking the celebration of the 337-day Siege of
Baler, the last significant engagement between Spanish troops and the forces of
the new-born Republic. The siege had been unfairly relegated to a minor footnote
in history books, and Sen. Edgardo Angara, Baler’s favorite son, deserves the
nation’s gratitude for focusing interest on the heroic but futile resistance of
the Spanish contingent and the fierce determination of the revolutionary forces
to drive out the colonizers.
What puzzles us is, first, why the siege was celebrated
yesterday when all accounts are unanimous in saying the garrison surrendered on
June 2, 1898, and, second, why Gloria – despite her penchant for grand gestures
demonstrating her avowed compassion – chose to go to Baler instead of flying
immediately to Panay which suffered the brunt of the devastation wrought by
typhoon Frank.
We cannot describe the latter as the height of insensitivity.
It’s already neigh impossible to top Gloria’s decision to leave with a planeload
of hangers-on when Frank was already battering Panay for insensitivity. Likewise
her decision to continue with the visit which, it turned out, carried no
important agenda after M/V Princess of the Stars capsized with 800 souls on
board.
Perhaps it’s her way of showing her presence was indeed
dispensable at the height of relief efforts for Frank’s victims.
On her arrival, she said government will get to the bottom of
the tragedy. Why, has there been any accusation that government is only
scratching on the surface for the causes of the accident and in determining
responsibility?
She said new Doppler radars will be installed in eight more
places? Have we not heard this before when the Asean summit in Cebu was
postponed over what turned out was a wrong forecast by the weather bureau?
The only statement from her we found timely and relevant was
that she is going to Iloilo today to preside over a Cabinet meeting to assess
the damage and to map out a rehabilitation program.
But that only damns her all the more for leaving the country with key Cabinet
members on a junket, delaying government response to the calamity.
