MINORITY BLOC: NOY ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING / SHOWDOWN AT BUDGET HEARING
MANILA, AUGUST 2, 2011 (TRIBUNE) By Charlie V.Manalo 08/02/2011 - Following the tradition of the opposition in Congress delivering a contra-Sona (State of the Nation Address) the minority bloc in the House of Representatives yesterday gave President Aquino a grade of zero in terms of accomplishments in his one year in office as head of state and government.
In his contra-Sona, House Minority Leader, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman blasted Aquino, saying he virtually accomplished nothing based on what he had promised during his maiden Sona.
"In last year's Sona, the President had a triple agenda on legislative priorities requiring the enactment of seven urgent measures; what appeared to be an economic program exemplified by the three-Ps on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and governance centerpiece on anti-corruption campaign," Lagman said.
"Unfortunately, the President scored zero as in zero in his triple agenda."
The Albay solon claimed Aquino failed to have a single law from his seven priority legislative measures passed.
The bills, still pending in congressional committees include Fiscal Responsibility; Anti-Trust; National Land Use; Amendments to the Procurement Law; Amendments to the National Defense Act of 1935; Whistle-Blowers; and Strengthening the Witness Protection Program.
Lagman also chided Aquino as he stressed that all the
1935, 1973 and 1987 Constitutions mandate the President to deliver his Sona before the Legislature, not from any rally venue, which was what the President sounded in his speech.
The Sona must contain the President's legislative agenda and priority policy pronouncements for enactment by the Congress, thus he should have followed through the concretization of his administration's priority measures and policies in appropriate legislation by the Congress," said Lagman
However, Lagman said it was very glaring Aquino had failed to follow-through the enactment of not even one of his priority bills despite the overwhelming number of Aquino allies and partisans in the Congress, even as Congress is ready to fast-track urgent or priority measures of the administration at the President's behest.
"This lack of follow-through reflects the President's sluggish work habits. After the applause has subsided, he conveniently forgets that he has to roll up his sleeves and get actual work done," said the Albay solon.
Ironically, Lagman noted that Aquino added more priority bills in his second Sona.
"We hope he can revisit the status of these measures before they become candidates for the archives," said Lagman.
The opposition leader said that while Aquino did not spell out in last year's Sona's his administration's economic road map, in the same breath he did not elaborate on the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) in this year's Sona as it has neither been approved nor submitted to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac), he nonetheless gave us a glimpse last year of what may be his economic vision by extolling the beneficial prospects of his Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).
"In his 2010 Sona, the President announced that the solution was the public-private partnerships...There are some (investors) who have already shown interest and want to build an expressway from Manila that will pass through Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, until the end of the Cagayan Valley without the government having to spend a single peso," Lagman recalled...From these public-private partnerships, our economy will grow and every Filipino will be the beneficiary. There are so many sectors that could benefit from these."
Lagman pointed out that all those trimmings Aquino had mentioned had dissipated.
"What has ensued instead is the foreign businessmen's dismal disinterest in investing in the country because of the Aquino administration's foot-dragging and inefficient preparation of blueprints and implementing regulations. One year later, not a single PPP project has been bid out," Lagman stated as he cited the recent Asean business survey which showed that majority of foreign investors refuse to invest in the Philippines.
"They have been dismayed by the current administration's lethargic leadership, not to mention the abrogation of international consummated contracts which have passed government standards and scrutiny, for which the Philippines is now sued by foreign contractors before tribunals abroad for enormous amounts of damages," Lagman said.
In terms of the government's anti-corruption drive, Lagman said that Aquino and his lawyers wasted one year in vainly convincing the public and the Supreme Court on the contrived validity of the Philippine Truth Commission.
"Volumes of verbiage and sound bites have been wasted in propagandizing the Aquino administration's centerpiece agenda against corruption. Until now, the light at the end of the tunnel flickers like a distant beacon," said Lagman. "After one year, not a single complaint has been filed at the instance of vociferous Presidential graft busters. Of course, no conviction has been secured."
The solon further refuted Aquino's claim his government had succeeded in his anti-corruption campaign as the "Philippine corruption rating worsened to 8.9 from 8.25 in a scale of one to 10 in a survey covering the period from November 2010 to February 2011 which was conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd. (PERC)."
Lagman also refuted claims by Aquino that the early passage of the 2011 national budget resulted in infrastructure projects to be started early, saying it is where his government failed most
"Again, the President is less than candid in his report. While it is true that Congress passed the 2011 budget before the end of 2010, Malacañang releases came in trickles, if at all, so much so that the rainy season has arrived but funding allocations for various infrastructure projects are pending release," said Lagman.
"Even the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for congressional districts, which constitutes a small portion of the budget, has not been fully released seven months after the enactment of the GAA," the solon said.
"The victims are the constituents of the members of the minority and some vocal and independent-minded legislators belonging to the majority coalition. Meanwhile, thousands of deserving scholars may be unable to pursue college and vocational education and thousands of indigent patients are deprived of free medical care, the funds for which are sourced from the PDAF."
"And was it not he President, when he was a senator, who authored Senate Bill No. 3121 against the unbridled power of the President to impound approved budgetary allocations?" he added.
With the government's underspending, Lagman said it was no wonder the country's economic growth slowed to 4.9 percent in the first quarter of this year from 8.4 percent last year, "which the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has attributed to lackluster government spending. If GNP-instead of GDP-figures are used, economic growth was slower at 3.6 percent compared to 11.5 percent last year."
"Other standard economic indicators are far from encouraging," he added.
"What is the budget for if it will not be used for the purposes requested by the Executive and appropriated by Congress? It does not exist to generate a cosmetic fiscal surplus and contrived savings to contain artificially the deficit at the expense of growth and development. Perforce, appropriations must be released with reasonable alacrity and utilized judiciously," said Lagman.
"Forced savings are like drugs locked up in a medicine cabinet while an epidemic rages."
The solon also debunked Aquino's claim that the lives of more than a hundred poor families were uplifted due to the controversial conditional cash transfer (CCT)
"How on earth can a maximum of P1,400 a month per family-beneficiary liberate more than a hundred thousand families from poverty every month? The CCT is supposed to be only one component of the government's poverty alleviation program precisely because it is not a comprehensive approach to solving mass poverty. It is a mere analgesic, and painkillers are purely palliative," said Lagman. "Moreover, whichever way you look at it, the CCT is not sustainable because it is a dole-out."
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Showdown between Aquino eco team, house allies at budget hearing by Christine F. Herrera
A SHOWDOWN between President Benigno Aquino III's economic team and his House allies is expected when the marathon hearings on the proposed P1.816-trillion national budget begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
House allies threatened to impose "budget cuts and amendments" and expressed reservations over the "questionable implementation" of the dole to the poor amid the President's request to increase it to P39 billion from P21.3 billion.
The controversial conditional cash transfer program aside, the House leaders would also question the economic team, led by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, on the President's economic road map.
They would also question the withholding of the P35-million pork barrel and the P68-billion Internal Revenue Allocation for local government units in 2011 and P60 billion for 2012.
"The President's economic team has a lot of explaining to do," Deputy Speaker Jesus Crispin Remulla told the Manila Standard.
"For one, we would want them to answer why foreign investors, particularly the Europeans, shied away from the country. The European Chamber of Commerce complained about the way the government rescinds existing contracts and for having no clear-cut economic policy."
"I want to find out from the President's economic team what law they are invoking when they withheld the [Internal Revenue Allocation of the local government units] in the 2011 and 2012 budgets," said Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, chairman of the House committee on ways and means.
"I want answers why Secretary Abad withheld my P35-million pork barrel, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco told the Manila Standard. Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III said House members were lukewarm to granting the "substantial increase" in [the conditional cash transfer] allocation after he received reports that the money was not being received by the rightful recipients.
"As keeper of the purse, Congress would ensure that every single centavo given directly to the people would benefit the poor," Deputy Majority Leader Miro Quimbo said. He also wanted the Social Welfare Department to justify the expenditures on the poor
Abad admitted there were reports that some recipients that had qualified were not really poor. But Social Welfare was "well-ahead of schedule" and was reaching 100,000 recipients every month.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said the opposition was "considering" boycotting the budget briefing. With Maricel Cruz and Elaine Alanguilan
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