Noynoying

I couldn’t believe the international media actually caught up with the latest craze among demonstrators in the Philippines today — Noynoying. The article on it was even the most popular on Wall Street Journal’s website yesterday.

The term is attributed to the Philippine President Noynoy Aquino and simply means “doing nothing.” It is depicted by yawning, staring aimlessly, lying on the ground, looking bored, or just lazing around. In yet another colloquial Filipino term, it means being “petiks” or not taking something seriously.

The three-headed hydra press department couldn’t help but fend off the criticisms. They said, he is working really  hard. If there are lots of problems in the country, they’re all the previous administration’s doing. So they released a photo of the working president:

See! He’s very busy  scrutinizing about six documents that he forgot to put his glasses on. Note also that underneath the newspaper is a copy of the Constitution. He’s probably checking if the Senate could really summon Chief Justice Renato Corona notwithstanding that annoying thing called “separation of powers.”

Vice President Jejomar Binay, nonetheless, came to the president’s aid. In an interview, he said:

“Tigilan n’yo na ang ating Presidente (Give our President a break)… Can you imagine that the President eh di nagtatrabaho (is not working)? Siguro naman kahit ang mga barangay captains nagtatrabaho, di ba (Even barangay captains work, don’t they)?”

Like it really helped. Yes of course, even barangay captains or village chiefs work. The only problem is Noynoy is the PRESIDENT. He’s got not just a village to manage, but a nation. He’s already close to two years in the job, but it seems that there has been little progress in this administration in terms of economic development and poverty reduction, if not nil. Though there has been an awful lot of progress in persecuting the previous administration. But aside from entertainment, what does an ordinary citizen really get from it?

There’s also nothing inspirational about how the international media see him:

“Mr. Aquino might not be the most hands-on president to have led the Philippines. Since being elected in a landslide in 2010, Mr. Aquino has sometimes been caught laughing it up with celebrities instead of attending to the impact of typhoons and other disasters. It also taps into old Philippine folk tales about Juan Tamad, or Lazy Juan, who manages to get by doing the least amount of work to get by.”

On the other hand, the press department could be right. All the problems the Philippines is facing should be blamed on the former president. If 15 million Filipinos did not hate her so much in 2010, then Noynoy would not be running the country today.