President’s key ally bemoans ‘lack of clear direction’

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III’s closest ally and Liberal Party spokesman, House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, has attributed the President’s declining popularity to a “lack of clear direction, coherent economic road map and failure to stop the increase in the prices of basic commodities such as petroleum products.”

“What we need now are the bold strokes on what he wants to achieve. It is time to come out with a clear direction and road map of where he wants to go,” Tañada said.

He made the remarks during an open forum at the 15th National Press Forum of the Philippine Press Institute Wednesday at the Traders Hotel Manila, where he was the resource speaker on “New Dimensions in Good Governance.”

“People see prices, and every increase in the prices of commodities is a translation into a decrease in his popularity,” Tañada said.

He was among the first allies who prodded the President to cut the value-added tax on oil into half or 6 percent to cushion the impact of the series of oil price hikes. The President rejected those.

“[The] Increasing prices of basic commodities could be the culprit in the declining popularity of President Aquino,” Tañada said. He advised the President to look at survey developments as “a form of advice on where [the President] should go” in his governance direction.

Tañada outlined three key directions in good governance “that we hope will be the collective focus of the Executive and Congress in the second year of the present administration.”

First, he said, was the consolidation of reforms in the system of appointments, in the Armed Forces, in government-owned and -controlled corporations, at the Ombudsman’s office, and the Commission on Audit.

Second was “the passing of the Freedom of Information Act within the second regular session of Congress.

Third, “We must put together a responsive and coherent economic reform agenda.” –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today