CHEERS: SONA GAVE INSPIRATION TO FILIPINO PEOPLE / THANK YOU, MY BOSSES!
[PHOTO - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte applaud as President Aquino delivers his second SONA yesterday. VAL RODRIGUEZ]
MANILA, JULY 27, 2011 (STAR) - President Aquino's State of the Nation Address (SONA) drew praises from congressional leaders and other sectors not only for his statesmanship but also for the inspiration it gave to the Filipino people.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the SONA was inspiring to Filipinos, who now see clear and new directions on good governance in the Aquino administration.
"The speech of the President was good and inspiring because he said we have the power of change. We all can do it," Belmonte told reporters, noting that the SONA was not "vengeful."
Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the SONA was very clear "on what the President wants, that is to stop corruption and abuse in government so that government funds can be used for the poor."
"But Filipinos must pay the correct taxes, too. It's every Filipino's responsibility to help our country. Congratulations also on the initiative to make Filipinos accountable to the planting of trees and the support government will give to this initiative," Nograles said.
"Thank you to the President for instructing DOJ (Department of Justice) to go after extrajudicial killings. The President wants a change in the character of Filipinos – that is very noble," he said.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the SONA "was very consistent in his good governance and pro-people agenda. The litany of concrete achievements that he mentioned can be summed up into one: there is hope for every Filipino. His agenda of good governance was highlighted by his announcement of the new ombudsman," Evardone said.
Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez, vice chairman of the National Unity Party, said the SONA "was an instruction to Congress and a bugle call to the people on what must be done."
"In so far as the need to provide a sense of direction, the speech achieved it. It dealt with the future instead of dwelling on the past," Alvarez said.
Ang Kasangga sa Kaunlaran party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco said the SONA "reflected his parents' legacy of deep moral upbringing," while Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian, who is also spokesman of the Nationalist People's Coalition in the House, said "the President showed us his firm grasp of the country's economic, and national security programs."
"In the national security front he showed us significant investments in equipment that bolsters our capacity building efforts, while at same time pursuing international legal efforts to secure of territorial integrity," Gatchalian said.
"P-Noy justified very well running after grafters in the past administration as this would result in better services for the poor," Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said.
Misamis Occidental Gov. Loreto Leo Ocampos said Aquino showed his determination to rid the government of graft in his speech.
Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao rated the SONA at 85 percent. "I thought it was very substantive and the dollop of humor made the speech alive and interesting."
Former leaders were satisfied
Former President Fidel Ramos said Aquino's SONA "was better" than last year's.
"But we need to move faster because, although he (Aquino) show it, we are already at the bottom in the whole of Southeast Asia and in the whole Asia-Pacific region," Ramos told reporters.
"We need to work now," he said.
Former President Joseph Estrada also commended Aquino for his "clear" SONA.
"We need to give P-Noy time in restoring faith in government because of the immeasurable and insurmountable acts of corruption of the past administration," Estrada said.
"So while we are eliminating corruption, we should also be empowering our citizens through nation building. I hope that in his second year, we see more results in the fields of peace and order, food security and social services, especially education," he said.
The Black and White Movement renewed its support for Aquino's year-old government but said it needs to know the President's vision.
"We want to know what his vision is. He needs to spell it out," group leader Leah Navarro told reporters. "Where does this government want to take us?"
Navarro said while the government had been coming up with tag lines like "Daang Matuwid" or "Kung Walang Corrupt Walang Mahirap," it has yet to lay down plans on how it plans to achieve it.
In a statement, the group also noted that "corruption goes unabated" and that "the President's message of matuwid na daan has not cascaded down to government's subordinate offices."
Navarro, who was part of the volunteer movement that campaigned for Aquino for the 2010 polls, reiterated that her group continues to support the President but they would appreciate it if the government could fast-track programs that will eradicate poverty and produce educated youth, among others.
AFP all praises for P-Noy
Meanwhile, the military yesterday called President Aquino "a good planner" and is optimistic that he would remain supportive of the armed forces' capability upgrade program.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Commodore Miguel Rodriguez said they are inspired by Aquino's vision for the country as well as his drive to implement reforms.
"The plan of the President on where he would lead us is very clear. The President is a very good planner and he wants us to tread the straight path," he said in an interview.
Rodriguez said Aquino has given them direction through the internal security plan Bayanihan, which seeks to curb armed conflict through development.
"We also have a clear marching order to step up reforms. He brought back the honor and commitment of soldiers. The soldiers become more enthusiastic under his term," he said. Rodriguez said they are confident that through Aquino's guidance, the internal conflict with armed groups would eventually come to an end.
"We are optimistic that we will finally put an end to internal strife. We are considering the primacy of peace process. We're making inroads in the peace negotiations with CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," he said.
Rodriguez also praised Aquino's commitment to upgrade the capabilities of the military.
"He is providing us the necessary support. Under his leadership, we expect the upgrading of armed forces so we can be respectable force," the AFP spokesman said.
Rodriguez said the AFP would remain supportive of Aquino's development programs.
"We're looking at being able to contribute to the development of the countryside especially in conflict areas," he said. – Christina Mendez, Jess Diaz, Aie Balagtas See, Jose Rodel Clapano, Alexis Romero
FROM THE DAILY INQUIRER
Thank You, My Bosses!
[Photo - President Aquino delivers his second State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa building in Quezon City on Monday, vowing to strengthen the government's anticorruption drive to free up more resources and punish corrupt officials. EDWIN BACASMAS]
President Benigno Aquino III on Monday reaffirmed his commitment to root out the "culture of wangwang" (abuse of power) in every nook of government and in society, and said the fight against graft was personal to him and should be to all Filipinos because they were victims of corruption.
In his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) since taking office last year, the only son of late democracy icon Cory Aquino thanked the people for helping him in his crusade for change, saying it is the Filipinos treading "the straight and righteous path" who have created the change.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Aquino thanked the Filipino nation, "my Bosses."
Zeroing in on how public funds were squandered and citing one example, Mr. Aquino said the previous management of state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) had spent an incredible amount of P1 billion "on coffee alone."
With unveiled sarcasm, he wondered who drank all that coffee and if they had been able to grab some sleep at all these past few years.
The President spoke in Filipino throughout his 53-minute speech before a joint session of Congress. He was interrupted by applause 45 times.
Mr. Aquino mentioned teachers, policemen, soldiers and simple taxi drivers as among the ordinary Filipinos who had joined him in walking "the straight and righteous path."
"To the Filipino nation, my Bosses who have steered us toward this day: Thank you very much for the change that is now upon us. The Filipino people are, finally, truly alive," Mr. Aquino said.
After ticking off what he said were his administration's accomplishments, Mr. Aquino taunted his critics who had accused him of singling out former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and officials under her by filing plunder and other charges against them.
"Some of my critics say that I take this campaign against corruption personally. It's true: Doing what's right is personal. Making people accountable—whoever they may be—is personal," he said.
"It should be personal for all of us, because we have all been victimized by corruption."
Arroyos not around
Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, and her two sons who are also members of the House of Representatives snubbed Monday's session.
Mr. Aquino stressed: "What is wrong remains wrong, regardless of how long it has been allowed to persist. We cannot simply let it pass. If we ignore the crimes of the past, they will continue to haunt us. And if we do not hold people accountable, then they will do it again and again."
The President said his campaign against abuse of power and official arrogance—symbolized by his shunning the use of sirens and blinkers on the road—had yielded rewards, such as improved business confidence in the Philippines' future.
He asked Filipinos to do away with the culture of trying to unduly get ahead of others.
"You created a government that truly works for you. We still have five years left to ensure that we will not return to what once was. We will not be derailed, especially now that what we have begun has yielded so many positive results," Mr. Aquino said.
"If you see a loophole in the system, do not take advantage of it. Let us not acquire through patronage what we can acquire through hard work. No more cheating, no more taking advantage of others, no more one-upmanship—because in the end we will all realize our shared aspirations."
Wangwang remains
Unfortunately, he said, vestiges of the wangwang "mentality," which have enabled people to take advantage of the system, remained. "It still exists in the private sector."
Mr. Aquino said that, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, there are around 1.7 million self-employed and professional taxpayers—lawyers, doctors, businessmen—who paid only a total of P9.8 billion in 2010.
"This means that each of them paid only an average of P5,783 pesos—and if this is true, then they each must have earned only P8,500 a month, which is below the minimum wage. I find this hard to believe," the President said.
"Today we can see that our taxes are going where they should, and therefore there is no reason not to pay the proper taxes. I say to you: It's not just the government, but our fellow citizens, who are cheated out of the benefits that these taxes would have provided," he added.
PNP choppers
Mr. Aquino said it was the wangwang attitude that made irregularities possible in the past administration. He mentioned the two helicopters that the Philippine National Police had bought supposedly as new, although they had been used repeatedly by Arroyo's family.
"This was the attitude that allowed helicopters to be bought as if they were brand new, but had in fact already been extensively used," he said.
Mr. Aquino added: "This was the attitude that allowed GOCC (government-owned and -controlled corporations) officials, like those in Philippine National Construction Corp., to pay themselves millions of pesos in bonuses, even as they failed to render decent service and plunged their respective agencies deeper into debt."
He said his administration's campaign against abuses represented by the wangwang had restored confidence in the Philippines and prompted an upgrading of the country's credit ratings by Moody's, Standard and Poor's, Fitch and the Japan Credit Ratings Agency.
Results
"Our efforts have yielded results. Just this year, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger has come down," he said.
He said the incidence of self-rated hunger fell from 20.5 percent in March to 15.1 percent this June—"equivalent to a million Filipino families who used to go hungry, but who now say they eat properly every day."
"As for business, who would have thought that the stock market would reach seven record highs in the past year? At one time, we thought that for the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) Index to reach 4,000 points would be, at best, a fluke. We now routinely exceed this threshold," the President said.
"Our innovative fiscal approach has saved taxpayers P23 billion in the first four months of this year. This is enough to cover the 2.3 million conditional cash transfer beneficiaries for the entire year," Mr. Aquino said.
He said that in the nine and a half years of the Arroyo administration, the country's credit ratings were upgraded just once and downgraded six times by the different credit ratings agencies.
"Compare this to the four upgrades we have achieved in the single year we have been in office," he added.
Doing away with the wangwang culture has also revived the confidence of investors in the energy sector.
"One hundred forty companies, all ready to participate in the exploration and strengthening of our oil and natural gas resources, can attest to this," he said.
He added: "There is confidence and there is hope. The government is now fulfilling its promises."
P2.5 billion in savings
Discarding the wangwang attitude has also resulted in savings of more than P2.5 billion in the Department of Public Works and Highways after it stopped anomalous projects, he said. It also resulted in stopping the over-importation of rice.
"What was once an estimated yearly shortage of 1.3 million metric tons is down to 660,000—that's almost half of the original amount. Even with our buffer of 200,000 metric tons as contingency against natural calamities, it is still significantly less than what was once the norm," the President said.
Mr. Aquino also cited the Philippines being taken out of the US watch list of trafficking in persons.
"Perhaps, this is the 'sea change' that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was referring to… If we had not been removed from this watch list, the assistance we have been receiving from the Millennium Challenge Corporation would have been jeopardized," he said.
Mr. Aquino indicated support for pending legislative bills on compensation for the victims of the martial law regime and improved wages and benefits to household helpers.
"Tomorrow we will deliver to Congress our budget proposal for 2012. I look forward once again to its early passage so that we can build on our current momentum," he said.
Not once in his speech did the President refer to the demands by workers in his family's Hacienda Luisita for a redistribution of the lands in the sprawling sugar estate. Notably, neither did he touch on the reproductive health bill.
Mr. Aquino thanked the Roman Catholic bishops and priests, specially Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, who had been involved in talks with his administration to ease Church-State tensions.
He said the election of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines "bolsters my confidence that the State and the clergy will be able to engage each other in a positive manner."
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