After nine years of lies and empty promises, we finally heard the true state of the nation and how the new administration plans to lift the nation from where it now stands to where it should be a year from now.
While Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had to use props in the person of three little boys from Payatas and an incredible tale of three paper boats containing the wishes of the poor boys that found its way in Malacanang in her very first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2001, President Benigno Simoen C. Aquino III told it as it is: the national government is bankrupt and it needs the help of all sectors to steer it back from the “crooked path” to the “straight path.”
The “crooked path” signified the old, and the “straight path” signified the new. And to emphasize the urgent need to bring back the country to the right path, Aquino bluntly enumerated a few examples of the crooked path.
Aquino said his government is left with just 6.5% of the P1.54-trillion national budget, or P100 billion to spend for the remaining five months of the year. In addition, he said, P1.4 billion of the P2-calamity fund was spent by the previous administration even before the start of the typhoon season.
Of the amount, P105 million went to the second district Pampanga, the district that Arroyo now represents in the House of Representatives. Interestingly, the amount was released in May, just before the election.
These anomalies were just for starters. Aquino enumerated more, many of them occurring just before the elections in 2004, 2007 and 2010. He went on to expose anomalies in the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the National Power Corp. (Napocor), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the National Food Authority (NFA) that all resulted in huge losses, waste of funds, and a huge budgetary deficit.
But the revelation did not come as a shock, as Aquino had promised, because either the people had been used to hearing anomalies in the most corrupt administration ever, or the latest revelations failed in comparison to what have already been exposed.
Aquino didn’t even touch on the more glaring examples of the Arroyo administration’s “crooked path” that have previously been exposed, such as the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, the P329-billion NBN-ZTE deal, the P1.3-billion election computerization deal, the alleged P532.9-million overpricing of the P1.1-billion, 5.1-kilometer President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in the Manila Bay reclamation area, the $503-million Northrail project, the $466-million Cyber Education Project; the P3.1-billion irrigation project; the P455-million ice making machine scam the P5-billion swine scam; and the P120-million Ginintuang Masagani Ani (GMA) project scam.
I wouldn’t be shocked either if more and more scandalous anomalies are revealed in the coming months as the new Cabinet members go through the activities and expenses of their respective departments in the past nine years.
After revealing the true state of the nation left behind by the corrupt and profligate Arroyo administration, Aquino laid the groundwork on how he plans to right the crooked path. For one, he said there would be no more “waldas and tongpats,” meaning he will do away with profligacy and with commissions in government projects.
He stated in no uncertain terms that his government will not tolerate corruption and will not make wasteful and excessive expenses. By listing down seven priority bills that he wanted Congress to tackle immediately, he made it clear that his government will be different from the previous administration. The priority bills are on fiscal responsibility, which will prohibit the passge of any law that will require funding, unless the fund source has been identified; rationalization of the fiscal incentive system; anti-trust, to prevent monopoly and cartel in the market and to strengthen small and medium industries; national land use; whistleblower’s bill, toi strengthen the witness protection program and end the culture of fear and harassment; and amendment to the procurement law, to avoid the a repeat of the controversial NBN-ZTE deal.
Aquino also emphasized the need for peace to bring the country back to economic recovery, in sharp contrast to the combative Arroyo who declared war against the rebels and insurgents and vowed to annihilate them before the end of her term, which her generals admitted was close to impossible. Instead, Aquino invited the Muslim rebels and the New People’s Army to the conference table to talk peace. He opted to follow the reconciliatory path taken by former President Fidel V. Ramos, a former general who knew the difficulties of war.
Aquino also declared that his government would be a partner, rather than a burden, to business by stressing that his administration would go into partnership with private business in various projects to get the economy going. To show that he was serious in helping business, he said that getting business permits would be made easier and faster.
Aquino also stressed that he would not tolerate the murder of journalists and militants, as he revealed that the suspects in three of the six killings since he took over have been arrested and charged.
Aquino also promised to generate jobs, rebuild the railroads, build more roads and other infrastructures needed by business and industry, build more classrooms, expand Philhealth coverage, feed the poor, and more importantly, to go after those who abused the people’s trust in the previous administration.
“The situation is not what it was before; we can all dream again,” Aquino said.
The nightmare imposed upon the Filipino people by Arroyo is over, and, indeed, we can now dream again. For Aquino and his Cabinet, the hard work begins to make that dream a reality.
A year from now, we will either wake up to find that our dreams are beginning to be fulfilled and look forward to even better dreams, or wake up to find we’ve been had again and another nightmare has begun.