De Castro should apologize for venting anger on the urban poor

The vice president should apologize.

It’s not a pretty sight: VP Noli de Castro finally revealing himself to be a voice against the poor. Capitalizing on being a popular TV anchor before, he started out his political career by projecting himself as the voice of the people, “boses ng bayan.” He then went on to become the voice of the Arroyo regime. Now, this. It seems working for the anti-poor Arroyo regime, with the likes of demolition king Bayani Fernando, for nine years, has finally rubbed off on him. He is destroying what little electoral chances he still has.

Many people suspect that he lost his cool because media people kept bugging him about his plans for the 2010 elections. First up, he shouldn’t fret over the media attention. He should have spoken of his plans by now. Indecision is not something people look for in a president. Second, why vent your anger on the urban poor? Just because the urban poor doesn’t seem as powerful as the media, doesn’t mean they don’t remember tirades such as de Castro’s and that they’re not important in elections.

Third, how low can you go? Why threaten the urban poor with eviction? Such a threat can only show how insensitive Kabayan is when it comes to the plight of our urban poor kababayans. After migrating to the cities to look for a job and finding none, our urban poor kababayans have always faced threats of demolitions. For them to hear this threat from the country’s vice president just because he lost his cool over some media attention – that is just too much. The workers and urban poor will not forget this. ###