Mendacity killed the cat

Editorial

Not many were surprised when it was revealed that some figures President Benigno Aquino III presented during his State-of-the-Nation Address were half-truths or outright lies.

For example, the President said in his speech that the number of crimes had gone down since he assumed office. Actual police data showed that crime was actually increasing.

He also said the police would soon receive delivery of 74,600 handguns when only 59,904 were specified in documents.

And then, Mr. Aquino boasted that the government would end the shortage of classrooms by 2013. There was no indication, however, whether the government had funds to pay teachers and buy books and computers.

Presidential mendacity is not new to most Filipinos who listened in pain as former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo apologized for her “lapse in judgment” in speaking to an elections official during the 2004 elections.

Filipino politicians have not learned much from American leaders, even presidents, who have been inextricably caught in their lies.

Ronald Reagan claimed in 1980 that trees make more pollution than cars, then fibbed again in 1986 when he said “the US did not —“repeat, did not” – trade weapons for hostages in Iran.

In 1990, George Bush carried on the tradition when he thanked God for the Patriot missiles placed in Saudi Arabia and Israel that supposedly intercepted 41 of 42 Iraqi missiles. In truth, the Israelis said only one of the 17 missiles fired hit its target.

And who can forget George W. Bush who claimed in 2003 that “we found the weapons of mass destruction” when, to this day, no evidence has ever been found of chemical, nuclear, or biological weapons in Iraq?

Filipino leaders are indeed in exalted company when it comes to presidential fibbing, but that doesn’t mean that ordinary citizens do not mind lies. Like Americans, Filipinos have little respect for falsehoods and their makers, although they may expect those from their politicians.

Mr. Aquino’s half-truths may not rank very high in a global mendacity index when compared to the lies of other world leaders, but it reflects mendicancy in vision. It suggests that our leader does not have a grip on reality or that he is mortally afraid of being criticized for what he has done or what he has to do.

Congressional leaders had a point in saying the President would have had a more cooperative public had he just explained the real score, that it would have been easier to point to a national direction if Mr. Aquino had been more forthright.