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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Critique of 2012 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of BS Aquino – Part 1

So how has the Philippines fared since BS Aquino became PoTRP two years ago? Let’s review the talking points of the SONA 2012 and make sense of his pronouncements and what this implies for Asia’s Laggard.

This document is the first of a series of blog posts that will dissect the SONA and point out the flawed approaches of the Philippine welfare state and its corporatist benefactors.

Critique of Benigno S. Aquino III, Third State of the Nation Address, July 23, 2012

(Salutations removed)

This is my third SONA. It wasn’t too long ago when we began to dream again; when, united, we chose the straight and righteous path; when we began to cast aside the culture of wang-wang, not only in our streets, but in every sector of society.

It has been two years since you said: We are tired of corruption and of poverty; it is time to restore a government that is truly on the side the people.

Like many of you, I have been a victim of the abuse of power. I was only 12 years old when Martial Law was declared. For seven years and seven months, my father was incarcerated; we lived in forced exile for three years. I saw for myself how many others also suffered.

These experiences forged the principles I now live by: Where a citizen is oppressed, he will find me as an ally; where there is an oppressor, I will be there to fight; where I find something wrong in the system, I will consider it my duty to right it.

Martial Law ended long ago and when it did, we were asked: “If not us, then who?” and “If not now, then when?” Our united response: let it be us, and let it be now. The democracy that was taken from us by force was reclaimed peacefully. And in so doing, we brought light to a dark chapter in our history.

Let it not be forgotten: Martial Law was borne because a dictator manipulated the Constitution to remain in power. And to this day, the battle rages: between those who seek a more equitable system, and those who seek to preserve their priveleges at the expense of others.

BS Aquino’s “dream” turned out to be nightmare for every Filipino who remains jobless, underemployed, hungry, and poor. Try paying higher bills for electricity in a midst of rolling power outages. For someone who has been a “victim” of abuse of power – BS Aquino sure is doing a good job at abusing his power – such as the violation of Arroyo’s human rights and the Corona kangaroo impeachment court.

*******

The specters of a lost decade haunted us from our first day in office.

There was the North Rail contract—an expensive project that became even more expensive after renegotiation. Ironically, the higher cost came with fewer public benefits; a fleet of 19 trainsets was reduced to three, and the number of stations, from five to two. To make matters worse, the debts incurred from the project are now being called in.

We had GOCCs handing out unwarranted bonuses, despite the losses already suffered by their agencies. We had the billions wasted by PAGCOR on—of all things—coffee. We had the suspect management practices of the PNP, which involved ignoring the need to arm the remaining 45 percent of our police force, just to collect kickbacks on rundown helicopters purchased at brand-new prices.

We were left with little fiscal space even as debts had bunched up and were maturing. We were also left a long list of obligations to fulfill: A backlog of 66,800 classrooms, which would cost us about 53.44 billion pesos; a backlog of 2,573,212 classroom chairs, amounting to 2.31 billion pesos. In 2010, an estimated 36 million Filipinos were still not members of PhilHealth. Forty-two billion pesos was needed to enroll them. Add to all this the 103 billion pesos needed for the modernization of our armed forces.

To fulfill all these obligations and address all our needs, we were bequeathed, at the start of our term, 6.5 percent of the entire budget for the remaining six months of 2010. We were like boxers, sent into the ring blindfolded, with our hands and feet bound, and the referee and the judges paid off.

Actually it’s two decades and a half since the 1987 constitution – all of it lost as our ASEAN partners grow in leaps and bounds.

More public spending on classrooms and Philhealth customer acquisition to benefit the vested interests who supply books and construct school buildings while restricting the entry of foreign schools or foreign operated schools – will not improve education for Filipinos.

In our first three months in office, I would look forward to Sundays when I could ask God for His help. We expected that it would take no less than two years before our reforms took hold. Would our countrymen be willing to wait that long?

But what we know about our people, and what we had proven time and again to the world was this: Nothing is impossible to a united Filipino nation. It was change we dreamed of, and change we achieved; the benefits of change are now par for the course.

Roads are straight and level, and properly paved; this is now par for the course.

Relief goods are ready even before a storm arrives. Rescue services are always on standby, and the people are no longer left to fend for themselves. This is now par for the course.

Sirens only blare from the police cars, from ambulances, and from fire trucks—not from government officials. This is now par for the course. The government that once abused its power is finally using that power for their benefit.

Reforms were established as we cut wasteful spending, held offenders accountable for their actions, and showed the world that the Philippines is now open for business under new management.

The Philippines is the same tollway, manned by new operators – and still corrupt as hell. Roads are straight and level, and properly paved – and overpriced like the public roads that pass through the Hacienda Luisita – this is now par for the course.

It is change that people dreamed of – a change for the worse – and now they are jobless and broke – with loose change in their pockets.

What was once the sick man of Asia now brims with vitality. When we secured our first positive credit rating action, some said it was pure luck. Now that we have had eight, can it still just be luck? When the Philippine Stock Exchange Index first broke 4,000, many wondered if that was sustainable. But now, with so many record highs, we are having trouble keeping score: For the record, we have had 44, and the index hovers near or above 5,000.

The sick man of Asia is SICKER than ever. The positive credit ratings do not benefit the Filipinos. What it means really is the PHL government is awash with money. Why is it awash with money? Because it has been nickel and diming the OFWs, businesses, pretty much everyone – except cronies who will flash tax exemptions with the drop of a hat. There has been a lot of record highs – among them joblessness, hunger, poverty, and underemployment.

In the first quarter of 2012, our GDP grew by 6.4 percent, much higher than projected, the highest growth in the Southeast Asian region, and the second only to China in the whole of Asia. Once, we were the debtors; now, we are the creditors, clearly no laughing matter. Until recently, we had to beg for investments; now, investors flock to us. Some Japanese companies have said to us, “Maybe you’d like to take a look at us. We’re not the cheapest but we’re number one in technology.” A British banker recently came loooking for opportunities.

The GDP grew on the back of unsustainable government spending. China’s unbridled government spending is coming to an end – a hard landing aka a bubble bursting as more unoccupied cities built with lax credit.

The so-called investors who flock to us are limited to the PSE. The PSE is limited to huge companies. The hot money that went to these PSE companies do not translate to increased income for companies that are not members of the PSE.

When it comes to foreign investments – investors are flocking.. but not to the Philippines. Not when Ford Philippines sent a clear market signal about moving out of the Philippines and into Thailand.

Commentators the world over voice their admiration. According to Bloomberg Business Week, “Keep an eye on the Philippines.” Foreign Policy magazine, and even one of the leaders of ASEAN 100, said that we may even become “Asia’s Next Tiger.” Ruchir Sharma, head of Morgan Stanley’s Emerging Market Equities said, “The Philippines is no longer a joke.” And it doesn’t look like he’s pulling our leg, because their company has invested approximately a billion dollars in our markets. I only wish that the optimism of foreign media would be shared by their local counterparts more often.

The operative word is “may”. It will be good to remind Aquino of the adage – don’t count the chicken before the eggs hatch. The fact that Aquino is talking pie in the sky while the reality is that of the $331B in FDI that went to Asia (as reported by UNCTAD IN 2011) – only $2B went to the Philippines.

Morgan Stanley’s investments should be met with caution – hot money comes and goes quickly – while FDI is solid direct investments on the ground.

And we are building an environment where progress can be felt by the majority. When we began office, there were 760,357 household-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Our target: 3.1 million within two years. By February of this year, the three millionth household-beneficiary of Pantawid Pamilya had been registered. Next year, we will enroll 3.8 million—five times what we had at the beginning of our term.

This is a long-term project, with far-reaching impact. The research is in its initial stages, but already the figures show promise. Based on data from the DSWD: 1,672,977 mothers now get regular checkups; 1,672,814 children have been vaccinated against diarrhea, polio, measles, and various other diseases; 4.57 million students no longer need to miss school because of poverty.

This is the biggest SCAM of all. Progress can be felt by everybody when the economy improves- when there are good paying jobs, and people can afford the basic commodities.

Expanding the PPPP actually validates that the economy has WORSENED – after all you don’t extend help unless things are bad. The expansion of the PPPP there are more people who are suffering from poverty – and who are in the process of being converted to Pobreng Pinoy na Pulpol at Palamunin.

When we first took office, only 62 percent of Filipinos were enrolled in PhilHealth. Enrollment was not necessarily based on need but on being in the good graces of politicians. Now, 85 percent of our citizens are members. This means that since we received our mandate, 23.31 million more Filipinos have access to PhilHealth’s array of benefits and services.

And here’s even better news: the 5.2 million poorest households identified by our National Household Targeting System will now fully benefit from PhilHealth’s programs, free of charge. Because of the Department of Health’s No Balance Billing Policy, treatment for dengue, pneumonia, asthma, cataracts—as well as treatments for catastrophic diseases like breast cancer, prostate cancer, and acute leukemia—can be availed of for free by our poorest countrymen.

The process for our poorest PhilHealth members: Enter any government hospital. Show you PhilHealth card. Get treatment. And they return to their homes without having to shell out a single centavo.

Philheath’s “free” hospitalization is a ruse. It’s not FREE – and taxpayers have to pay more taxes so that BS Aquino can give it away and claim it as “free”. Morever, you get what you pay for – you pay peanuts and you get monkeys. The services of any government hospital is like learning Shakey’s Pizza’s admonition all over again – “don’t complain about the service, there ain’t any!”.

One of the briefings I attended noted that four out of ten Filipinos have never seen a health professional in their entire lifetime. Other figures are more dire: Six out of ten Filipinos die without being attended to by health professionals.

But whatever the basis, the number of Filipinos with no access to government health services remains a concern. And we are acting on this: In 2010, ten thousand nurses and midwives were deployed under the RNHeals Program; to date, we have deployed 30,801. Add to this over 11,000 Community Health Teams tasked to strengthen the links between doctors and nurses, and the communities they serve.

And today, because of efficient targeting, they are deployed to where they are most needed: to areas that have been for so long left in the margins of society. We have sent our health professionals to 1,021 localities covered by the Pantawid Pamilya, and to the 609 poorest cities and municipalities, as identified by the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

This new system addresses two issues: thousands of nurses and midwives now have jobs and an opportunity to gain valuable work experience; at the same time, millions of our countrymen now have increased access to quality health care.

The Philippines has kept foreign owned hospitals from operating in the Philippines in order to agument the dearth of local hospitals and in order to mitigate the tax burden of inefficiently run public hospitals. The privatization of public hospitals would have been a good signal – but the lack of liberalization and the participation of government is a red flag which implies that as more Filipinos are given substandard Philhealth service – the taxpayers will be subsidizing Aquino’s cronies who are running the PPP with the DOH.

But we are not satisfied with this. What we want: True, universal, and holistic health care. This begins not in our hospitals, but within each and every household: Increased consciousness, routine inoculation, and regular checkups are necessary to keep sickness at bay. Add to this our efforts to ensure that we prevent the illnesses that are in our power to prevent.

For example: Last year, I told you about our anti-dengue mosquito traps. It is too early to claim total victory, but the initial results have been very encouraging.

We tested the efficacy of those mosquito traps in areas with the highest reported incidence of dengue. In 2011, traps were distributed in Bukidnon—which had recorded 1,216 cases of dengue in 2010. After distribution, the number of cases decreased to 37—that is a 97 percent reduction rate. In the towns of Ballesteros and Claveria in Cagayan, there were 228 cases of dengue in 2010; in 2011, a mere eight cases were recorded. In Catarman, Northern Samar: 434 cases of dengue were reported in 2010. There were a mere four cases in 2011.

This project is in its initial stages. But even this early on, we must thank Secretaries Ike Ona of DOH and Mario Montejo of DOST; may our gratitude spur them into even more intensive research and collaboration.

Challenges remain. The high maternal mortality ratio in our country continues to alarm us. Which is why we have undertaken measures to address the health-care needs of women. We, too, want Universal Health Care; we want our medical institutions to have enough equipment, facilities, and manpower.

We can easier fulfill all these goals, if the Sin Tax Bill—which rationalizes taxes on alcohol and tobacco products—can be passed. This bill makes vice more expensive while at the same time raising more money for health.

Universal health care sounds noble. Until, you find that have to pay for the health care expenses of someone other than you. And that your taxes will be divided between Aquino cronies who will supply the drugs, maintain the hospitals, provide telecomm, provide power and water – while people will still recieve poor quality of health care.

Universal access need not be tax funded and packaged as another free lunch. Rather the premise is that all citizens have access to health care and can afford to pay for it when they need it.

Opening the health care market will allow the entry of foreign owned private hospitals which can put up buildings, have more beds and wards, and employ nurses – without the tax burden – and the accompanying pilferage of taxes under the guise of the Priority Development Assistance Fund aka PDAF or pork barrel.

And what of our students—what welcomes them in the schools? Will they still first learn the alphabet beneath the shade of a tree? Will they still be squatting on the floor, tussling with classmates over a single textbook?

I have great faith in Secretary Luistro: Before the next year ends, we will have built the 66,800 classrooms needed to fill up the shortage we inherited. The 2,573,212 backlog in chairs that we were bequeathed will be addressed before 2012 ends. This year, too, will see the eradication of the backlog of 61.7 million textbooks—and we will finally achieve the one-to-one ratio of books to students.

We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps Responsible Parenthood can help address this.

For our State Universities and Colleges: we have proposed a 43.61 percent increase in their budget next year. A reminder, though, that everything we do is in accordance to a plan: There are corresponding conditions to this budget increase. The SUC Reform Roadmap of CHED, which has been deliberated and agreed upon, must be enacted to ensure that the students sponsored by the state are of top caliber. Expect that if you work to get high marks in this assignment, we will be striving just as hard to address the rest of your needs.

Year after year, our budget for education has increased. The budget we inherited for DepEd last 2010 was 177 billion pesos. Our proposal for 2013: 292.7 billion pesos. In 2010, our SUCs were allocated a budget of 21.03 billion pesos. Since then, we have annually raised this allocation; for next year, we have proposed to set aside 34.99 billion pesos of our budget for SUCs. Despite this, some militant groups are still cutting classes to protest what they claim is a cut in SUC budgets. It’s this simple: 292.7 is higher than 177, and 34.99 is higher than 21.03. Should anyone again claim that we cut the education budget, we’ll urge your schools to hold remedial math classes. Please attend.

Filipino students that graduate from public schools are getting DUMBER Year after year – whether it’s a UP architect graduate winding up as a bimbo on ABS-CBN’s tacky noontime shows.

Instead of opening the education market, the CHED embarks on a massive replication of its inferior curriculum which only produces maids for deployment overseas.

Instead of allowing foreign owned schools to build more schools, hire more teachers, educate more students, introduce innovative topics and pedagogies the Filipinos would rather have CHED put up substandard schools full of underpaid and demotivated teachers.

When we assumed office and began establishing much-needed reform, there were those who belittled our government’s performance. They claimed our achievements were mere luck, and what impact they may have as short-lived. There are still those who refuse to cease spreading negativity; they who keep their mouths pursed to good news, and have created an industry out of criticism.

If you have a problem with the fact that before the year ends every child will have their own chairs and own set of books, then look them straight in the eye and tell them, “I do not want you to go to school.”

There is much reason to belittle the absence of performance of the Aquino government – it excels in government spending and totally flunks when it comes to outcomes.

Sure you sent the child to public school. But what did the child learn? How to become a tsimoy, tsimay, pokpok, and ass wipe. The luckier ones can get jobs as bimbos on ABS-CBN. When that badly educated child grows he becomes an easy prey for brainwashing and vote buying.

If you take issue with the fact that 5.2 million of the country’s poorest households can now avail of quality health-care services without worrying about the cost, then look them straight in the eye and tell them, “I do not want you to get better.”

Filipinos need to take issue with this Philhealth farce – the increase in number of households covered does not translate to quality health care – in fact it overstretches the capacity of an antiquated public health care system.

Can Aquino look Filipinos straight in the eye and say – “I did not prevent foreign owned hospitals” to give you better quality care at more affordable cost san tax money?

To make people believe that there is no cost when the service is paid for taxpayers is definitely an issue called LYING.

If it angers you that three million Filipino families have been empowered to fulfill their dreams because of Pantawid Pamilya, then look them straight in the eye and tell them, “I will take away the hope you now have for your future.”

Pantwaid Pamilya is not empowerment – it is mendicancy. Jobs empower people – not dole-outs. By keeping joblessness high – Aquino has removed hope, necessitating Filipinos to go overseas to find hope, away from this hopeless bleak landscape.

The era where policy was based on the whims of the powerful has truly come to an end. For example, the previous leadership of TESDA generously distributed scholarship vouchers—but neglected to fund them. Naturally, the vouchers bounced. The result: over a thousand schools are charging the government 2.4 billion pesos for the vouchers. One person and one administration wanted to show off; the Filipino people are paying for that now.

When Secretary Joel Villanueva assumed the post, he was not daunted by the seemingly impossible reforms that his agency needed to enact. Despite the staggering debt inherited by TESDA, it still trained 434,676 individuals under the Training for Work Scholarship Program. The TESDA Specialists Technopreneurship Program likewise delivered concrete victories—imagine: each of the 5,240 certified Specialistas are earning 562 pesos a day, or 11,240 pesos a month. This is higher than the minimum wage.

From infancy, to adolescence, to adulthood, the system is working for our citizens. And we are ensuring that our economy’s newfound vitality generates jobs.

The era where policy was based on the whims of the powerful has EXPANDED – just look at the legitimization of plunder as Aquino’s cronies corner all the PPP projects without competition.

Let us keep in mind: there are about a million new entrants to the job market every year. The jobs we have produced within the past two years total almost 3.1 million.

As a result, our unemployment rate is declining steadily. In 2010, the unemployment rate was at 8 percent. In April 2011, it dropped to 7.2, and dropped further to 6.9 this year. Is it not an apt time for us to dream of a day where any Filipino who wishes to work can find a job?

While the unemployment rate has dropped – the question is what kind of jobs are people being employed in? What sort of compensation are they receiving. Worse, the underemployment rate has EXPANDED.

People voting with their feet still continues as the flow of economic refugees stream through the embassies continuously.

(To be continued)


About the Author

BongV

has written 399 stories on this site.

BongV is the webmaster of Antipinoy.com.


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