CONTRARY to his Independence Day speech claims, President Benigno Aquino 3rd has failed to rescue the country from poverty and hunger, a House leader said on Monday.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman noted that while the President trumpeted that he was going to rescue Filipinos from poverty and corruption, all major economic indicators were lower and the corruption index was higher since Mr. Aquino took office in July last year.
“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 lawmaker said.
President Aquino vowed a graft and corruption-free Philippines in his Independence Day speech in Kawit, Cavite, on Sunday.
Lagman described the President’s speech as something replete with trite platitudes, erroneous hyperbole, stale promises and contrived achievements, relating it to KKK.
But instead of the KKK standing for Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangan na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Highest and Most Respected Group of Children of the Nation) of the Philippine Revolution, the KKK Lagman was referring to was Kaibigan, Kaklase at Kabarilan (Friends, Classmates and Shooting Buddies).
The lawmaker said that the President’s “achievements”, namely 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) were all doubtful.
He questioned the constitutionality of the ARMM election postponement.
Lagman said that the GOCC reform measure was riddled with apparent constitutional infirmities since it violated security of tenure of government officials and transfered to the executive department the authority of Congress to reorganize and abolish government agencies and fix compensation of government functionaries.
He described the inordinate expansion of the CCT as flawed, considering that many disqualified individuals received benefits while deserving beneficiaries got nothing, even as the fund has been augmented by P2 billion without congressional authorization.
“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 previous administration which he failed to sustain,” Lagman said.
But for Assistant Majority Leader Sherwin Tugna, the President’s statement was very relevant, considering that a number of Filipinos are on the verge of declaring corruption as a way of life and giving up on the fight against it.
“The President’s declaration was both timely and necessary before we, as a society, hit a tipping point where everyone else just gives up on the fight against corruption in the government, creating a dangerous domino effect,” he said in a separate statement.
“Openly declaring the ‘new chapter’ is openly taking in more responsibilities. The people can thus continue to be hopeful despite anything, in spite of everything,” Tugna added.
By Llanesca T. Panti, The Manila Times
Follow us on: