Enrile to Ayalas: Blame yourselves

I hate Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. The man is evil. But for once, I am with him in chiding the Ayalas. The senator has a point. The Ayalas need to take full responbility for the Glorietta accident.

Now I don't know why Senator Enrile suddenly came out of senility. Could be envy, as the Enriles once embarked on a dream of building a real estate empire until the 1997 financial crash cut the dream short, with the decaying JAKA Tower on Ayala Avenue serving as an ugly remnant of their failed ambitions.

But whatever dark motivations drive the man, he makes perfect sense.

Frankly, I am quite disappointed with how Ayala Land and the Ayalas are dealing with the quagmire they found themselves in. Call me a doe-eyed Indio still enthralled by our former colonial masters but I actually admire the Ayalas, not for their wealth but from having them acknowledge that they owe much to this country. For a family that occupies the top of the social totempole, admitting that they would probably be nothing without the Philippines is, for me, a show of humility. Or maybe, just the absence of arrogance.

Either way, it's hard to hate the Ayalas.

Having worked for a decade in Makati, I've had close brushes with the brothers Fernando Zobel and Jaime Augusto Zobel. In many instances I had to pinch myself just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating during those times I crossed the Ayala underpasses with them as they casually walked in shorts and sneakers on their way to their Tower One office--without a phalanx of bodyguards clearing a path for them. They were literally walking on the same ground I walked on! (Okay, they own THAT ground. But still...)

However, I doubt they ever considered themselves Filipinos. But no matter, they do a pretty good job of not showing it.

But with the Glorietta tragedy, they are not living up to their name. I just hope they realize soon enough this a chance for them to put their money where their mouths are.

Otherwise, all those Ayala owes much to the Philippines corporate motherhood statements are nothing more than lip service.