Senator Francis Escudero is wrong when he said that I am critical of President Aquino and his administration because it is my role as House Minority Leader. It is my duty as a Representative and citizen to speak for countless Filipinos whose sentiments are not articulated and conveyed to Malacañang on the President’s lack of leadership and resolve to address pressing problems like the deterioration of economic and social indicators on human development.
Senator Escudero fails to see or refuses to acknowledge the inadequacies of the President because of his alliance with the Aquino administration.
The President’s incumbency of only one year is not a justification for a lackluster performance and failure to deliver his 16-point agenda relative to his so-called social contract with the people.
Senator Escudero, like President Aquino, cannot keep on blaming the past administration for current failures. President Aquino inherited a sound and growing economy which he failed to sustain.
The President’s report to the nation on the first year anniversary of his incumbency can be better assessed by what he failed to say:
1. He failed to talk on his performance relative to his 16-point social contract with the people on good governance, economy, education, health, justice and principal reforms, among others;
2. He failed to address the deteriorating prime economic and social indicators like the bleak data on poverty, hunger, joblessness, investor and consumer confidence, including his centerpiece program on anti-corruption where the rate has even aggravated;
3. He failed to detach himself from an all-consuming agenda of vindictiveness and fault-finding against the past administration which deters him from moving forward; and
4. He even failed to address the special concerns of the youth which was significantly represented in his captive audience.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda quibbles on fractional differences and proximate time differentials covered by surveys as if these miniscule aspects would transform a molehill of a performance of the Aquino administration to mountains of achievement.
Granting that the 2011 first quarter growth was actually 4.9% and not 4.8%, Lacierda can have the extra one-tenth percent if he needs it that badly.
Even if the 7.4% unemployment rate in the first quarter this year slipped to 7.2% in the 2nd quarter, such meager improvement did not liberate a sizeable number of unemployed which is still close to a staggering 11.3 million jobless.
The statements by the minority are anchored on facts and supported by credible surveys, even from government agencies like the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the National Statistics Office (NSO).
One is not bluffing if he invokes statistics from competent government sources.
On the contrary, Lacierda’s data are selective and biased because he has to defend the President at all costs since his job is on the line.
For the good of his patron, Lacierda must speak not only from his vocal chords but with his cerebrum.
For being just a mudslinger, Lacierda is incapable of intellectual discourse.
He has no mandate unlike Minority Members in the House of Representatives. He is simply a casual who has to earn his keep by being servile to the appointing power.
House Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman on Thursday morning filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking the nullification for being unconstitutional and invalid Republic Act No. 10153 postponing the 08 August 2011 election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The petition for certiorari and prohibition was interposed even before the ink had dried up on President Aquino’s signature finalizing the enactment of the assailed law at 10:00 AM on 30 June 2011 after the ceremonial signing was deliberately stalled for three weeks following the ARMM bill’s passage by Congress on 07 June 2011.
Aside from postponing the ARMM election, R.A. No. 10153 authorizes the President to appoint officers-in-charge for the regional governor, vice-governor and members of the Regional Assembly pending synchronization of the ARMM election with the national and local elections in May 2013.
Named respondents are Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr., who is sought to be enjoined from enforcing the controverted measure, and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) which is prayed to be mandated to resume preparations for the holding of the elections as scheduled this August in order not to moot the petition.
Lagman asserted that all of the constitutional and statutory safeguards for autonomy in ARMM have been violated and derogated by R.A. 10153.
The following fatal infirmities were cited in Lagman’s petition:
1. Violation of the constitutional guaranty of elective and representative regional officials in ARMM with the deferment of elections for almost two years and the installation of OICs;
2. Unconstitutional expansion of the President’s limited power of general supervision over ARMM officials to the more potent power of control which is inherent in the appointment and dismissal of OICs;
3. Failure of the Senate to garner a 2/3 vote which is required by the Organic Act, as amended, to make valid the amendments introduced in R.A. No. 10153;
4. Failure to provide for the holding of the mandatory plebiscite for the ratification of the amendments contained in R.A. 10153;
5. Denial of the right of suffrage to ARMM voters for a long period in violation of the safeguard on periodic and popular elections; and
6. Setting aside of the holdover of incumbents until their successors are elected and qualified as provided for in the Organic Act, as amended, in order to give way to OICs.
Lagman also decried the stratagem of the Aquino administration in fast-tracking the legislation of the ARMM bill in the vastly subservient Congress and then delaying and temporizing the adjudication by an independent Supreme Court of petitions challenging the infirm Act to render them moot and academic.
Lagman also said in the petition that the postponement of the ARMM election was based on partisan and contrived motives, and not for patriotic and judicious reasons.
He added that synchronization of elections and introduction of reforms can be pursued without cancelling the ARMM polls because they are not inconsistent with the holding of the previously scheduled August election, and the need for and efficacy of reforms can be enhanced by a fresh mandate obtained by newly elected officials.
Lagman is represented by lawyers Johween O. Atienza and Tristan Frederick L. Tresvalles.
It is not advisable to grade the President on a scale of one to 10. A periodic report card with graded achievements and failures is for school kids and students, not for the nation’s Chief Executive.
It would be better to send regular wake up calls to the President on his performance versus his campaign promises and on the state of the economy and governance versus the current data on prime economic and social indicators. This way, the President could grade himself if he has sufficient discernment of crucial data and a serious commitment to his exalted position.
Otherwise, no amount of faltering grades will jolt him to reality and action, and no diminishing marks from critics will convince him to abandon an offensive agenda of vindictiveness and a defensive aura of braggadocio.
Despite the President’s allergy to bad news, he must be made aware repeatedly that virtually all principal economic and social indicators of growth and progress are down, just like his plunging popularity and trust ratings.
The President’s major campaign sound bite of “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” has become a relic of partisan sloganeering and faulty premise. It is a candidate for a museum artifact, not a pulsating reality in the podium of fulfillment.
The President’s centerpiece program against corruption is becoming a centerfold for being bare propaganda. The country’s corruption rating has even worsened to 8.9 from 8.25 on 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 and Risk Consultancy, Ltd. (PERC).
The Aquino administration has also failed to assuage the problem of persistent hunger. According to the SWS, a total of 20.5% of Filipinos surveyed experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months as of the first quarter of 2011. This translates to 4.1 million Filipino families suffering hunger up from 3.4 million families (18.1%) in the fourth quarter of 2010. Similarly, the incidence of poverty has escalated.
The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that the unemployment rate hit 7.4% in January 2011 even before the thousands of displaced Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) returned as a result of the crises in the Middle East and Northern Africa and tens of thousands of new graduates bloated the ranks of the unemployed in March and April this year. Likewise, a recent SWS survey revealed that 11.3 million or 27.2% of Filipinos over the age of 18 are jobless or an increase of 1.4 million jobless over the 9.9 million unemployed in November 2010.
Verily, the President has failed to deliver his promises of more jobs and less corruption.
Both foreign investor and Filipino consumer confidence indices have plummeted. The latest ASEAN business survey showed that majority of foreign investors would refuse to invest in the Philippines. The unresolved PIATCO controversy, the recent abrogation of consummated major contracts of foreign investors and the projected PPP undertakings still in suspended animation have compounded the reluctance of foreign investors.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that the Filipino consumer confidence index went down to -23.1% and -24.1% for the first and second quarters respectively of 2011 from -8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2010 as the Aquino administration fails to arrest the spiraling of prices of food, fuel and other basic commodities. The BSP also disclosed that the business confidence index went down from 47.5% in the first quarter to 31.8% in the second quarter of 2011.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2011 dropped to a low of 4.8% from a high of 7.1% in the last quarter of 2010, although the average for the entire 2010 was 7.7%. Verily, the Aquino government failed to sustain the sound and growing economy left by the previous administration.
While all these economic and social indicators are bleak, President Aquino gloats over artificial savings and cash surpluses.
Appropriated funds should not be immobilized in a showcase, but must be released with reasonable dispatch and utilized with judicious alacrity to finance government operations and prime up the economy. Forced savings are like drugs locked up in a medicine cabinet while an epidemic rages.
The electorate makes a President, but only talent, experience, competence and dedication make a good President. These solid attributes are not legal qualifications for the Presidency. But they are invaluable standards which the voters must consider and assess in choosing their President.
The Filipino people were expecting too much from President Aquino. Shibboleths and promises during the presidential campaign concealed and overshadowed his inadequacies. These were the same inadequacies he brought to Malacañang and as the truism goes, one cannot squeeze blood from rock.
Those who have less in capabilities must have more in good counsel and worthy subalterns. But is the President appointing the right people? This dilemma will bedevil the President and this country for the next five years. The people should be prepared to expect the worst because their mistaken choice is the big problem. Blunder begets disaster.
