President Benigno Aquino addresses students and government workers in Manila on June 30, 2011, at a ceremony marking his first year in office. Aquino said he was on track to rid the country of corruption and bring economic development despite his falling popularity ratings.
WE had Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Hermino “Sonny” Coloma as our Times roundtable guest on Friday.
The subject we wanted to dwell on specifically was President Benigno C. Aquino 3rd’s second State of the Nation Address tomorrow.
We could not get anything much from him, who was very careful not to leak anything to anybody. He did not want a repeat of the last SONA, when Secretary Ricky Carandang gave his former colleagues in ABS-CBN a generous pre-SONA briefing.
But from Sec. Coloma we did get a scoop—that the President would “speak completely in Tagalog—orTaglish.” This he said was based on his knowledge of the President’s desire to reach his foremost audience, “the people,” most of whom, they in Malacañang apparently believe, would be reached better through Tagalog or Pilipino/Filipino and not through English.
I interjected that if that were the intention then why not speak in Cebuano-Bisayan, which still has the most number of native-speakers. Mr. Coloma and all of us just laughed that interjection off.
When the conversation, led by our President and CEO, and Executive Editor, Dante F. M. Ang 2nd, got to the more substantial matter of the administration’s accomplishments that Mr. Aquino would most likely report in his SONA tomorrow, Secretary Coloma immediately spoke of what former Times columnist and former NEDA chief, now Inquirer columnist Cielito Habito had written about three weeks ago.
This was about the so-called underspending of the Aquino administration—and its alleged failure to carry out and launch projects—like infrastructure and other public works—which could have improved the unemployment situation.
Secretary Colomo spoke of something that we in The Times had in fact written an editorial about—and quoted Mr. Habito’s eye-opening insights: That despite the under-spending, because the present administration is double-checking all the figures and all the procedures to weed out any possibility of corruption leakages of funds, as much work and projects have been done for much less cost.
All the projects already on line and budgeted for have not been suspended. These are being carried out, employing the number of people required and performed with more integrity than previously. Mr. Coloma mentioned a figure of something like 1,900-something projects that are being implemented.
And from these savings of scores of billions have been made and these savings are used to fund other projects, like the Conditional Cash Transfers and more infra projects.
So, Mr. Coloma said, this administration is proving that going the clean and straight way is in fact also the more economically productive way to go.
Since I have been persuaded, more than most other people who do not work for the administration, by Dr. Habito’s findings, I asked Mr. Coloma to give actual quantities—in pesos and centavos, and number of projects and number of jobs created and where, and what the plans for the various departments are.
He promised me that his Media Relations Officer would give the things I need, especially the plans.
As it turned out, when Klink asked him also about the plans, Mr. Coloma was only adverting to the NEDA’s Philippine Development Plan.
I have read the whole plan and find it lacking in details.
The goals and strategies are all there. But the questions most journalists of goodwill would want President Aquino’s SONA to answer are about details of how the goals are to be achieved.
Foremost areas
The foremost areas of the economy that concern most people are the following:
Food security. Do we really have the possibility of becoming self-sufficient by 2013. (See story “Is rice self-sufficiency in 2013 really possible as DA Sec. Alcala says?”
As far as imported rice goes, Sec. Coloma assured us, repeating the assurances publicized by National Food Authority Administrator Lito Banayo, we do have a buffer stock and NFA acquired it a huge savings of one-half the amount the previous administration spent for similar imports.
Another gut issue that Filipinos want addressed is unemployment.
What programs are there to implement the NEDA’s goals and strategies to increase employment through agricultural development and supporting our manufacturing and export sectors?
Tourism is supposed to be—based on the example other countries like Spain, Thailand and Japan—a major source of dollar earnings and obviously a massive creator of jobs. What exactly is the administration planning to do to boost the tourism industry?
Poverty alleviation. How accurate are the Welfare Department and Education Department claims about the success of the Conditional Cash Transfer program. The budget now is double that of the previous administration which initiated the CCT.
We do believe that there are now three million students enrolled as a result of the CCT. Whereas there were only one million in the past administration. The budget is now P21 billion but it was only something like 12 billion under President Arroyo. That’s an achievement in itself: tripling the beneficiaries with less than double the original budget.
Yet, we also wish the Aquino people would be able to silence with credible facts and figures the critics who claim that the families benefited as not all “the poorest of the poor” but are friends of the barangay chairmen.
Why are the plans not easy to get at it?
The Aquino administration’s transparency is supposed to be much better than any of the past administrations.
So why don’t we see the plans of action?
Perhaps, the answer is that the local government units, which are the ones that are supposed to do most of the work in a properly run government, are the ones drafting the plans and they have not all transmitted these to the Cabinet departments.
Not many have paid attention to something that NEDA head, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr, has been an advocate of—which makes him a soulmate in governance matters with former Cory Finance Secretary Jesus Estanislao.
Sec. Paderanga has been encouraging local government units (LGUs) to embark on area-based planning that will complement the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, as well as the regional and local development plans.
“We believe in the appropriateness of area plans, as these cross regional or local borders. These plans are based on natural resource features or economic units, and not political boundaries, which will be effective in identifying actual programs and projects that will best address the needs of the area,” Secretary Paderanga said in his speech at the Provincial Economic Summit of Surigao del Norte on June 15, 2011.
In previous meetings, Mr. Paderanga has explained that “area-based planning determines and addresses the needs of a specific area on a cross-sector basis and identifies the projects that should be implemented. It allows greater complementation of resources among LGUs and provide for more strategic investments and enable social services to reach places that where they are most needed.
“This process must be led by people in the area who know the resources and can propose how things must be done, including the provision of incentives if they believe these are appropriate, to attain their goals and objectives,” he says.
He adds that area-based planning could also improve inter-island trade and boost commerce and domestic tourism that will in turn contribute to the pursuit of inclusive growth.
“Inclusive growth” according to Mr. Paderanga is the main goal of the PDP 2011-2016.
This means growth that not only benefits special sectors but all—especially the underprivileged.
The Philippine Development Plan was approved by the NEDA Board in March and of course by President Aquino.
It was released in May 2011.
According to a NEDA statement, the PDP “envisions a country that has achieved inclusive growth that is characterized as high, sustained and broad-based.”
The plan, which is supposed to be what the Aquino administration follows, incorporates inputs from regional consultations that were attended by representatives from regional government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, business groups, academe, civil society organizations, and local executive and legislative officials.
Growing investments
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Cristino L. Panlilio in a presentation to media last week said he is cure that that the investment rate in our country, both foreign and domestic, will continue to grow until the end of 2011 and beyond.
He said this at the now weekly Communication and News Exchange Forum held at Philippine Information Agency (PIA).
The undersecretary said the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP) are now more or less impressive at 5 percent.
“We believe that with this swelling development, we can hit GDP and GNP to be somewhat at 7 percent,” he said.
The PDP sets growth targets to be 7-8 percent and growing in the coming years.
We have only mentioned a handful of issues that our people would surely wish President Aquino to address tomorrow.
Other matters are:
The Freedom of Information Act.
Peace with communist and Mindanao separatist Muslims.
Criminality—kidnappings and robberies.
The inflation.
The high prices of oil and gasoline products;
The anti-business and anti-family cost of electricity.
The high cost of wellness and hospitalization. The lack of rural health units and the underfunctioning of many of these.
Why is President Aquino wasting energy and his administration’s resources in having the so-called Reproductive Health Bill passed when it won’t solve the poverty problem but only make the Philippines follow the tragically aging populations of Japan, the USA and Western Europe?
The re-integration OFWs.
The classroom shortage of 124,000 rooms and teacher shortage of 113,000.
The growing drug problem. –Rene Q. Bas, Editor In Chief, Manila Times
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