Suddenly, the president is on the unusual situation of being portrayed as pro-pork barrel that even his move to abolish the pork has not at all calmed down an angry population. His political enemies are trying to capitalize on the people's anger and ride on their disgust.
Their main argument is the non-inclusion of the president's own pork barrel which amounts to billions of pesos. Adding to cast doubt on the president is the fact that the COA Report on the PDAF abuse covered the period prior to the first three years of his presidency. It, again, highlighted corruption during the administration of Gloria Arroyo. If the PDAF is abused, it must have persisted well into Aquino's administration as nothing has been changed with the way it was disbursed.
Aquino, unlike his parents, is a pragmatist, a believer in realpolitik. To win loyalty of congress he resorted to the same tricks used by his predecessors - dangle pork barrel funds in exchange for their support. He could have walked the talk and took the moral high ground but it would have left him isolated and unable to end Arroyo's hold on Congress.
Today, his enemies know their chance to replace him in 2016 is to demolish his and his parents' image of heroism and self-sacrifice for the nation. Even Binay knows he cannot be president at the rate Aquino is enjoying support. Only a less than stellar Aquino presidency would assure that the next president wouldn't be an Aquino endorsee.
Binay is in a fix. On one hand is his loyalty to Cory, on the other is his ambition to be president. And many surround him for a chance at another shot at power in 2016.
In the meantime, Janet Lim-Napoles who is in the center of this controversy is nowhere. The administration better find her soon or someone else's head will roll to appease the public. People are not exactly interested in her. They know she was mere conduit and that their lawmakers are involved.
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