Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

PNoy led the 113th anniversary celebrations of Philippine Independence with rhetoric and braggadocio

Press Statements
  • Office of the Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
  • 13 June 2011
  • 09189120137 / 09166406737

      

          While Filipino revolutionaries won Philippine independence with heroism and bravery, President Aquino led the 113th anniversary celebrations of Philippine independence with rhetoric and braggadocio.

           The speech of the President was replete with trite platitudes, erroneous hyperbole, stale promises and contrived achievements even as the Revolution’s KKK (Kataastaasang Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan) has been supplanted by Kaibigan, Kaklase at Kabarilan.

           The President said nothing new and announced nothing significant.

           While the President trumpeted that he was going to rescue Filipinos from poverty and corruption, the harsh reality is that since he assumed office, all major economic indicators are lower and the corruption index is higher.

           The President’s exhortation that “true freedom is freedom from hunger, ignorance, poverty and lack of jobs” was unmindful of more hungry, jobless and poor Filipinos in his first year of incumbency.

           The hyperbole of the President that the “whole country was made to ride in a paper boat eventually to drown is a sea of lies and anomalies” failed to acknowledge that he inherited a growing economy from the last administration which he failed to sustain.

           While the President claimed as his achievements the postponement of the elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), passage of the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) Reform Law and the expansion of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), all of these are doubtful accomplishments.

           The deferment of the ARMM polls appears unconstitutional even as it is unpopular.

           The GOCC reform measure is likewise riddled with apparent constitutional infirmities as it violates the security of tenure of GOCC officials and transfers to the Executive the authority of Congress to reorganize and abolish government agencies and fix the compensation of government functionaries.

           The inordinate expansion of the CCT is flawed as many disqualified individuals received benefits while deserving beneficiaries got nothing, even as the fund has been augmented by P2.0 billion without congressional authorization.