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PBBM to fPRRD: San yung pasyal?
“San yung pasyal (Where’s the leisure)?” a beaming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Manila-based reporters in Berlin, waving a folder with the first page that showed a full itinerary.
It was PBBM’s pointed retort to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s claims that he was just gallivanting.
“Ito ‘yung schedule ko oh. San yung pasyal? This is my schedule for today. Where’s the pasyal, no? Wala (None),” the President asserted, an air of triumph on his face compared to his past responses to PRRD’s tirades.
“We don’t make pasyal. Even in the places that I know, where I have spent a lot of time with, hindi ho, hindi ko napunpuntahan ‘yung mga dati kong pinupuntahan (I was not able to go places I frequented in the past) because we’re here to do this,” he declared.
PBBM is right.
He has tightened up his schedule in his foreign trips after being criticized for being able to afford leisure time while watching Formula One races and concerts. This time, he came ready with an itinerary that could withstand public scrutiny. He had reason to feel that he won this round against the former President.
And yet, fPRRRD is also right. With mounting problems confronting his administration, the scandals hounding the Department of Agriculture which he left worse than when he came in, his bungling foreign policies which has pushed the country closer to war than ever before, a foreign trip that could wait was “pasyal-pasyal”.
Right here the Filipino can see the great divide between the perspectives of PBBM and fPRRD. PBBM thinks that he is doing the country a favor with just a list of to-dos on his foreign itinerary. FPRRD points out that there is so much to do with the government’s rapidly dwindling resources just less than two years after his assumption.
FPRRD, if he were in PBBM’s shoes, would perhaps limit his foreign to not more than once a month. In contrast, PBBM believes he can accomplish much on foreign shores instead of holding long and stressful meetings to address urgent concerns.
It is no surprise therefore that while fPRRD made it a policy to be on ground zero when there are calamities, condole grieving families of soldiers and policemen killed in action, PBBM would rather focus on speeding up the people’s initiatives despite overwhelming opposition to it.
And while fPRRD is breathing curses over obscene spending by law-makers under the liquidation by certification practice, PBBM speaks no evil, sees no evil and hears no evil on one of the most revolting issues of the day.
Worst of all, while fPRRD has been spewing profanities over the escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea that moves the country into the feared outbreak of war over Taiwan, PBBM couldn’t care less about the lives of Filipinos particularly in Batanes and Northern Luzon because he is busy acting as the United States spokesman in the region.
FPRRD’s soaring popularity as reflected in the surveys for the 2025 senatorial derby in sharp contrast to PBBM’s free fall in public approval shows where the people’s sentiments lie not only regarding the two but also to their contrasting priorities.
Obviously, PBBM has to do more than just wave a folder showing his itinerary on his working trip. Make no mistake about it: most Filipinos would love to see him succeed. Unfortunately, at this time, the light at the end of the tunnel seems more like that of an oncoming train than the doorway out of the darkness.
Foto/MANILA BULLETIN
“San yung pasyal (Where’s the leisure)?” a beaming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Manila-based reporters in Berlin, waving a folder with the first page that showed a full itinerary.
It was PBBM’s pointed retort to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s claims that he was just gallivanting.
“Ito ‘yung schedule ko oh. San yung pasyal? This is my schedule for today. Where’s the pasyal, no? Wala (None),” the President asserted, an air of triumph on his face compared to his past responses to PRRD’s tirades.
“We don’t make pasyal. Even in the places that I know, where I have spent a lot of time with, hindi ho, hindi ko napunpuntahan ‘yung mga dati kong pinupuntahan (I was not able to go places I frequented in the past) because we’re here to do this,” he declared.
PBBM is right.
He has tightened up his schedule in his foreign trips after being criticized for being able to afford leisure time while watching Formula One races and concerts. This time, he came ready with an itinerary that could withstand public scrutiny. He had reason to feel that he won this round against the former President.
And yet, fPRRRD is also right. With mounting problems confronting his administration, the scandals hounding the Department of Agriculture which he left worse than when he came in, his bungling foreign policies which has pushed the country closer to war than ever before, a foreign trip that could wait was “pasyal-pasyal”.
Right here the Filipino can see the great divide between the perspectives of PBBM and fPRRD. PBBM thinks that he is doing the country a favor with just a list of to-dos on his foreign itinerary. FPRRD points out that there is so much to do with the government’s rapidly dwindling resources just less than two years after his assumption.
FPRRD, if he were in PBBM’s shoes, would perhaps limit his foreign to not more than once a month. In contrast, PBBM believes he can accomplish much on foreign shores instead of holding long and stressful meetings to address urgent concerns.
It is no surprise therefore that while fPRRD made it a policy to be on ground zero when there are calamities, condole grieving families of soldiers and policemen killed in action, PBBM would rather focus on speeding up the people’s initiatives despite overwhelming opposition to it.
And while fPRRD is breathing curses over obscene spending by law-makers under the liquidation by certification practice, PBBM speaks no evil, sees no evil and hears no evil on one of the most revolting issues of the day.
Worst of all, while fPRRD has been spewing profanities over the escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea that moves the country into the feared outbreak of war over Taiwan, PBBM couldn’t care less about the lives of Filipinos particularly in Batanes and Northern Luzon because he is busy acting as the United States spokesman in the region.
FPRRD’s soaring popularity as reflected in the surveys for the 2025 senatorial derby in sharp contrast to PBBM’s free fall in public approval shows where the people’s sentiments lie not only regarding the two but also to their contrasting priorities.
Obviously, PBBM has to do more than just wave a folder showing his itinerary on his working trip. Make no mistake about it: most Filipinos would love to see him succeed. Unfortunately, at this time, the light at the end of the tunnel seems more like that of an oncoming train than the doorway out of the darkness.
Foto/MANILA BULLETIN
