Assessing President Benigno Aquino iiis

first year in power

on chasing after the crocodiles in the government

quinos tagline during the presidential campaign period was Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. He was elected as chief executive by trying to distinguish himself from his predecessor Gloria Arroyo; his was an image of a leader that would not dip his hands in any public fund. Again and again, he said he would make Arroyo and her cohorts accountable for the unbridled plunder of the countrys treasury. A year has passed but no Arroyo has been held accountable for her crimes. It was the people from progressive organizations and human rights groups who filed cases against the much despised Arroyo. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, a staunch ally of the former president, was implicated through initiatives that are clearly not Aquinos. Indeed, Aquinos daang matuwid has only been a metaphor for a vision that has never become reality in the first year of his presidency.

A year has passed but no Arroyo has been held accountable for her crimes.

on human rights

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He was silent in the issue of extrajudicial killings

hile Aquino has been very vocal with his promises to end corruption, he has been as silent in the many cases of human rights violations. He was silent in the issue of extrajudicial killings, in the death of botanist Leonard Co (who, by virtue of overwhelming evidence, was killed by military elements, not in an encounter between soldiers and the New Peoples Army), in the continuing disappearance of UP students Karen Empeo and Sherlyn Cadapan, among others. His administration had done nothing in prosecuting perpetrators of human rights violations. For one, retired Maj. Gen. Jovito The Butcher Palparan remains at large even after leaving a bloody trail during his stint as chief of the seventh infantry division.

on education

he approved the historically massive budget cuts in many state universities and colleges.

lthough Aquino said education would be his top priority, his administration has done little or nothing to address the education crisis. It was no longer an issue of incompetence; it is deliberately ignoring the interests of the students. In his first months as president, he approved the historically massive budget cuts in many state universities and colleges. He said that these institutions have other ways of generating income, forgetting that by nature, these state universities are funded primarily by the state, not by the tuition of its students. As the new academic year opens, more than 200 schools are set to increase tuition rates, as old problems of classroom shortage and dilapidated facilities continue to burden the youth. Dubious and redundant miscellaneous fees continue to be approved in many private schools. Aquinos response was not to increase the budget, unlike what a person with a sound judgment would do. He proposed the K-12 program, claiming that lengthening the education cycle would solve the age-old dilemma. Of course, the problem is not that simple, for countries in which students scored excellent in aptitude exams have shorter cycle than that in the Philippines.

on the national economic situation

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Prices of commodities and transport fares skyrocketed, as oil prices increased 14 consecutive times.

nemployment, poverty and inflation steadily rose during the first year of Aquinos presidency. More than 11 million Filipinos are jobless, as wage rate remains insufficient for everyday cost of living. Aquino flatly rejected the decadeold call for the P125 wage hike for the most invalid of reasons. Last May, the inflation rate climbed to a record 4.5 percent. Prices of commodities and transport fares skyrocketed, as oil prices increased 14 consecutive times. However, instead of scrapping the Oil Deregulation Law (which has allowed giant oil companies to create an artificial scarcity and dictate prices), he said that the administration can do nothing because oil prices hikes were a global phenomenon. His grand plan to address the problem was the Conditional Cash Transfer program, which was nothing but a palliative solution to worsening economic condition of the poor majority.

on land reform

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throughout his first year, he had not discussed a comprehensive program on land reform.

rogressive organizations were right when they assumed that Aquinos lack of initiative in the issue of land reform could be traced to his haciendero background. True enough, Aquino, a scion of land-owning family in Tarlac, has refrained from taking action in the Hacienda Luisita dispute. He said he cannot do anything to distribute the land because he was not a major stockholder, again conveniently forgetting that he is now the president of the republic and thus has all the powers of the chief executive. In all his speeches and throughout his first year, he had not discussed a comprehensive program on land reform. However, this was not surprising, for Aquino remains loyal to his clans interests above everything else, and therefore does not understand the essence of social justice.

COLLEGE EDITORS GUILD OF THE PHILIPPINES

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