a year after the euphoria president aquino asserts himself

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One year after Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s landslide victory in the presidential elections, 62 % of the Philippine population are supportive of their liberal president. Employment is going up, the fiscal deficit is going down, the military is getting under control, and corruption has become a dirty word.With regard to foreign affairs, the administration demonstrates determination to stand up to the Chi- nese aggressions in the South China Sea. Aquino is asserting himself, and has seized initiative.

Philippinen:

A year after the euphoria: President Aquino asserts himself

Manila, 25.08.2011

Bericht aus aktuellem Anlass

N° 36/2011

Jules Maaten / Pauline Sanchez

Aktuelle Informationen zur Projektarbeit der Stiftung für die Freiheit finden Sie unter www.freiheit.org

In this first year in government, PresidentAquino and his Liberal Party (LP) were workingon the difficult transition from a small opposi-tion party to being the main party in govern-ment. A shift in attitude - that’s how politicalanalysts describe Aquino’s performance afterone year in office. His obsession with fightingcorruption is echoed in his second State of the

Nation Address (SONA) on July 25

th

2011,where he firmly articulated:

“Some of my critics say that I take this campaign against corruption too personal. And it’s true: doing what’s right is personal. Making people accountable - whoever they may be - is personal. It should be personal for all of us,because we have all been victimized by corruption.”

The Philippines, for the first time in over a dec-ade, have a government that has not been

plagued by corruption scandals, and that leadspeople to shifting their mindset from tolerat-ing corruption to being angry about it.

House-cleaning

Levelling the uneven playing field that wascaused by President Aquino’s predecessor,President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo - this hasbeen the goal of the Aquino administrationsince his presidential campaign. Nine and ahalf years in power, the Arroyo regime couldhave significantly propelled development inthe daily lives of Filipinos. But instead of rec-ollecting excellent leadership, most Filipinoscan only summon up numerous allegations of graft and corruption involving the previouspresident. The Arroyo administration was lit-tered with cases such as the 2004 and 2007

election fraud and expensive, controversialand probably fraudulent infrastructure pro-




jects such as the Manila Airport Terminal 3 andthe North Luzon Railway Project.

Präsident Benigno Aquino, Quelle: Friedrich-Naumenn- Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF)

Most Filipinos had stopped trusting the gov-ernment during Arroyo’s term.

“There can be no reconciliation without justice”

This was the resounding statement that thenewly sworn in President, Benigno SimeonAquino III, articulated as part of his inauguralspeech on June 30, 2010. This statement hasbecome a symbol of hope for the Filipinos whohad long been plagued by a myriad of cases of

corrupt and dishonest government activitiesduring the past administration.

A major obstacle in criminal prosecutionagainst corrupt officials was former Ombuds-man Merceditas Gutierrez. The Ombudsman isusually appointed by the President for a seven-year term, assigned to investigate and prose-cute cases filed against public officials andstate employees. Gutierrez was appointed byPresident Gloria Arroyo in December 2005.

Holding this position for nearly six years, herterm in office was characterized by corruption,

partiality and inaction in favour of the rulingadministration. She was accused of deliber-ately disregarding high-profile corruptioncases (known as Fertilizer Fund Scam, Euro

Generals Scandal, Mega-Pacific Deal, NBN-ZTEDeal, among others), all of which allegedly in-volved the Arroyos, who were accused of havingprofited monetarily from the projects.

Aquino’s action plan - impeachment.

Constitutionally, the only way to discharge anOmbudsman is through impeachment.Gutierrez was subjected to impeachment “forbetrayal of public’s trust and culpable viola-tion of the Constitution”. The Liberals in theHouse of Representatives took the lead. OnMarch 22nd 2011, after a long debate anoverwhelming 212 congressmen voted “yes” toimpeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez,while only 46 voted against it and 4 ab-stained. Out of those who voted in favour of the impeachment, 75 belong to the LiberalParty. This was not only an important victoryfor Aquino; it also demonstrated the LP’s abil-

ity to create an important parliamentary ma- jority. Few days before the impeachment trialstarted in the Senate, Gutierrez resigned.

While Arroyo was able to get away with allher alleged plundering then, the nation care-fully watches the performance of the newombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, ap-pointed by President Aquino.

An open and rationalised budget

The culture of government is already chang-ing. The Ministry of Budget and Managementheaded by Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, aformer President of the Liberal Party, has un-dergone reforms to enhance transparency andaccountability in the allocation of funds, to-wards ensuring a government that is efficient,effective and free from corruption. One of these liberal reforms is the so-called Zero- Based Budgeting (ZBB). The ministry has been

steadfast in implementing this strategy that istargeted towards eliminating redundancies in




the allocation of funds in order to prioritize keyprojects.

Florencio Barsana „Butch “ Abad, Quelle: FNF

The ZBB is opposed to the traditional practiceof incremental budgeting which relies on auto-

matic increases or augmenting the previousbudget.

In terms of revenue collection, a study by theDBS Bank of Singapore assesses that the Philip-pine government is expected to maintain atrend of higher revenue collection and lowerspending following a P61-million budget sur-plus posted in the first four months of 2011.The Bureau of Internal Revenue collectedP88.16 billion in May, 11.5% more than the

P79.05 billion posted in the same month in2010. Coupled with the exercise of prudence inmanagement expenses, Budget Minister Abadsaid that the Aquino administration had keptthe deficit within target for 2010, because of improved and more stringent revenue collectionin the latter part of the year. This is a first stepin dealing with the problem of mass tax eva-sion.

Protecting the West Philippine Sea

“We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours," Presi-dent Aquino stated as he resolutely asserted

the nation’s stand on protecting the disputedSpratly islands in the West Philippine Sea (alsoknow as the South China Sea). Recently, Chinamade claims on large parts of this resource-rich area, provoking conflict with the Philip-pines, Vietnam and Malaysia. There were anumber of incidents, where Chinese forcesintruded into Philippine territory. Two Chinesepatrol boats threatened a Filipino oil explora-tion ship into leaving the Reed Bank. Two mili-

tary planes were deployed during the March 2incident, but the Chinese boats left by thetime the aircraft reached the Reed Bank,about 90 miles (150 kilometres) from the Phi-lippine coast. Chinese officials have said therewere no intrusions because the waters belon-ged to China.The Philippine government isnow considering file the dispute in the SouthChina Sea to the UN International Tribunal forthe Law of the Sea “to ensure that all involved nations approach the dispute with calm and

forbearance."

Improving the economy

The economy is finally improving self-ratedhunger has gone down from 20.5% in Marchto 15.1% this June—equivalent to a millionFilipino families who used to go hungry, butwho now say they eat properly every day. Theunemployment rate has gone down nearly apercentage point to 7.2%, while one million

and four hundred thousand jobs were created.The Philippine’s credit ratings were upgradedfour times in the past year.

Infrastructure is another area of concern thatneeds to be addressed by the government. Anexpensive and fragmented transport system,problematic contracts - these are current is-sues faced by the Ministry of Transportationand Communication. After the resignation of former minister De Jesus, President Aquinoapproached former Senator Manuel (‘Mar’)Roxas III from the Liberal Party to address




these problems. As minister at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Roxas brought in innova-tions such as launching the “Make IT (Informa-tion Technology) Philippines,” which harnessed

the potential of the Philippines as a global e-services hub. He also pioneered the establish-ment of high-technology industry centers andbusiness process outsourcing (BPO) market inthe country, particularly call center operations,hence providing jobs and incomes to Filipinos.

Among the most pressing issues that Mar Roxasneeds to solve is the aforementioned probablyfraudulent airport contract for Ninoy Aquino

Airport Terminal 3 that hinders its full opera-tion. He also finds on his plate the improvementof the country’s train system to offer bettertransport alternatives for Filipinos travelling tofar provinces and the roll-on roll-off system(RORO), that could aid merchants transporttheir goods to more areas efficiently. All threewill undoubtedly reap social and economicgains if resolved.

Promises and peace

The administration is steadily proceeding withfulfilling election promises. For some critics, thepace is too slow, and they expect the presidentto deliver more. At the same time, the admini-stration has another five years left in office. Inone area, Aquino delivered within barely a weekafter addressing the nation with his secondspeech. Unannounced, he flew to Tokyo on 5th August for a meeting with chairman Al Haj Mu-rad Ibrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation

Front (MILF) – the armed resistance on the is-land of Mindanao. The encounter, the first of this kind since Noynoy’s mother President CoryAquino had a similar meeting in 1987, was abold move to bring new movement into thepeace negotiations. Aquino’s efforts seem tohave paid off, with most Mindanao leaders ex-pressing new hope for an end to the decades-old war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and giving a serious boost to the presi-dent’s credibility.

Mar Roxas, Quelle: FNF

A day after the Tokyo meeting the MILF stated,that they were no longer seeking the creation

of an independent state.

Initiatives on reproductive health and on free-dom of information are under way. Summariz-ing, the battle for good governance has justbegun. But with the President’s commitmentto leading the country along what he calls“the straight path”, the Aquino administrationhas remarkably gained credibility. With hisconsequent approach in improving the lives of ordinary people, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino hasinspired a major part of the population bytrying to overcome the traditional negativeattitude towards government activities. As thePresident said: “Isn’t it great to be a Filipino living in these times? “

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a year after the euphoria president aquino asserts himself

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