Echoes from

BY JOHNNY DAYANG

P-Noy Harry Potter

My family and I spent our Yuletide vacation in Aklan, scene of countless, festive gatherings. Surprisingly, it is this communing with the old and familiar that brings back the past and makes you ponder about the year ahead, when the last days of December is just a shoulder away from the New Year.

For the Aquino administration, the past translates to a challenging last half of 2010.

The Supreme Court thumbed down his first EO (creation of a Truth Commission), saying it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

His succeeding EO and Memorandum Circular relating to midnight appointments likewise met with resistance and criticism. Add to that, the botched-up August 23 hostage rescue attempt that still has the country walking on eggs in our relations with China.

And then of course, there is that diplomatic faux pas of an indiscreet Malacanang speechwriter while in Vietnam. We also have continuing increases in the price of gasoline and prime commodities.

For any other President, the series of unfortunate events so early in the presidency would have created a lame duck Chief Executive officialdom for the next five-and-a half years of his administration. But I guess, such is not the case for a leader who is turning out to be the virtual "Harry Potter" President of the Philippines.

The latest SWS survey showed 73 percent of Filipinos approved of the Aquino administration, with only 9 percent against, for a net satisfaction rating of +64. An SWS November 23 poll revealed 93 percent of Filipinos said they were entering 2011 with hope, up from 2009's 89 percent.

How's that for the "boy who lived" or rather, outlived the avalanche of bad starts and wrong moves for the first half of 2010?

Like Harry, P-Noy is protected by a "halo" of goodness bequeathed to him by his dead parents. He also has his own Voldemort, whose horocruxes or "dismembered souls" are embodied in the jumble of legalese he needs to untangle before the term ends.

Hopefully, like Harry, P-Noy will win and save the day, just in time, in the end. How's that for a New Year fairy story?

Happy New Year !