THE charming and feisty Kimi Cojuangco, mayor of Sison town and better-half of Rep. Mark Cojuangco put the problem in just four words – to describe the sluggish response of major agencies tasked to undertake the typhoon rehabilitation in Pangasinan : “All sorts of excuses.”

At last Friday;’s meeting of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) at the newly refurbished session hall of the sangguniang panlalawigan at the Capitol, it didn’t take a minute for President Arroyo to get wind of the almost palpable resentment of the local executives regarding the slow arrival of the promised aid coursed thru local offices and agencies.

Before the salvos were fired, to avoid totally embarrassing those concerned, the President correctly took the move of asking that the media be ushered out of the hall so a more or less no-holds- barred discussion can be had. Kimi Cojuangco and partly, her husband, Mark, thus bared their hearts out to the President.

In sum, Mrs. Cojuangco, who later also vented her disgust at the situation before local media outside the hall, said the lower-ranked lieutenants in government appear to be taking the President’s instruction to speed up the rehabilitation for granted.

She did not say it in so many words but the lady mayor was driving home the point that the regional and provincial heads of offices of the Department of Education and Department of Social Welfare and other agencies the President tasked to spearhead the typhoon rehab seem to have the temerity to take their time in implementing the President’s own directives.

A quick check by the President with Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, calling the latter thru her cellphone in the midst of the forum, showed the money for the repair of damaged schoolbuildings have already been released to the DepEd regional offices concerned weeks earlier. That meant, of course, the bottleneck was in the lower echelon, the funds probably in hibernation in some bank or the other – while pupils were exposed to the elements attending classes under most uncomfortable conditions.

Some asses really have to be whipped – and now!