Never-ending Noynoying

Coined during the incumbency of Benigno Aquino III, the global Urban Dictionary as well as an authoritative and well-balanced entry in Wikipedia define “Noynoying” as “used to describe one’s inaction despite having the responsibility to do something.” 

In that word alone the breadth and span of Aquino’s governance is best described.

Referring to the viral spread of the term among mainstream and social media, the entries explain that “the term originated from a protest gimmick in the form of neologism (that) critics of President Aquino have used to question his work ethic, alleging inaction on his part on the issues of disaster response and of rising oil prices.”

As a recipient of the criticism, Aquino must not like the term. That’s understandable. It is his misfortune, self-inflicted however that may be, as well as an even greater misfortune for the public that suffers through its constant recurrence.

The term—now cliché and part of the colloquial vernacular, understood by all and now applied on other bunglers who mirror similar attitudes—might, indeed, be considered derogatory from Aquino’s perspective. In another, however, it is righteous and, perhaps, apt criticism of the work ethic of a president whose dissatisfied public pray would change his ways seeing in its profound foundations where such inaction has led to worsening governance, from the time the term was first coined to as recent as the latest affront against the poor and despondent at Kidapawan City, where Aquino once more seems to have “noynoyed.”

Other than serial instances early into the Aquino incumbency surrounding calamities and the debilitating increases in energy prices, the subsequent episodes include mismanagement and inaction following the tragedy wreaked by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in Tacloban City and the greater tragedy under the dysfunctional politicization of relief and rescue efforts under three of Aquino’s alter egos.

Note lasting stigma. Today the victims of Yolanda still consider the self-styled braggadocio comic book Hero of Tacloban as persona non grata.

Serial episodes of “noynoying” likewise include virtual betrayal deliberately inflicted on the surviving families of those 44 senselessly killed during the Mamasapano Massacre—a post-massacre tragedy inflicted on the deeply grieving as Aquino chose to ogle shiny and sleek automobiles rather than honor fallen heroes whose deaths were direct offshoots of bungling right under his authority.

It is unfortunate that the “noynoying” neologism is constantly updated, its coverage expanded, and its appropriateness given newer meaning by Aquino himself. He has spread its usage far beyond and well into far more emotionally gut-wrenching, deeply painful issues that define his presidency.

With a little over three weeks before the nation reaffirms its righteous judgment on an anointed successor, Aquino prays, will continue the kind of governance he had himself inflicted, the signature “noynoying” had yet again reared its empty head, this time on a stretch of road in remote Kidapawan, where desolation validates the hidden economic failures of the Aquino administration.

For an entire week Aquino virtually ignored the Kidapawan problem and the subsequent brutality and killings, saying that he learned of the farmers’ plight and their murder only after it had happened. Never mind that the begging and pleading for food and aid had begun four days before and the major media outlets had since then been continuously reporting worsening conflicts in drought-ravaged Cotabato province.

As the murderous killings were on-going Aquino was campaigning with the Liberal Party. Thereafter, one official mentioned a trip to Kidapawan. Only then did he learn of the tragedy.

That evening, Aquino claims he had a bum stomach (the default kindergarten excuse, upending “the dog ate my homework”) and would only eventually meet with those concerned several days after, saying, “You know, my work is really 24/7, 365 days, so sometimes even my body already complains.”

We can sympathize with that. It is not just his body that is complaining.