Opposition vows to support Noy's pro-poor, reform programs

MANILA, Philippines - The opposition bloc in the House of Representatives vowed yesterday to support the pro-poor and reform programs of President Aquino.

However, they would be swift to oppose illegal and harmful policies.

Delivering last night the “Minority Report” or the opposition bloc’s version of the State of the Nation Address (SONA), House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said: “While most would expect a hostile reaction to the President’s SONA, we are, as promised, a constructive minority.

“The administration can expect our support in mutually accepted policies and anticipate our vocal criticism where we believe that the administration is wrong.

“We are all still aglow with the very positive outlook for the country which our President presented last Monday during his SONA. We in the minority applaud him for his plans for the country...and we will not play the party spoiler’s part for once.”

Suarez said the opposition will not hold its criticism “when we find that such programs may be detrimental or may need fine tuning before it hits the ground running.”

He congratulated Aquino and his Cabinet for the eight positive credit ratings appraisal, which will eventually lead to more investments for the Philippines.

He also thanked the administration for its work that led to the 6.4 percent Gross Domestic Product growth, a feat surpassed only by China in the Asian region.

However, Suarez said some lapses and loopholes in Aquino’s SONA, including on the conditional cash transfer program where he reported that 334 impoverished municipalities were identified as having no rural health units (RHU).

“We respectfully suggest that some of the funds allocated for the CCT be used to build RHU buildings,” he said. “This is just logical because even if you have cash to buy medicine but nowhere to buy it from, then it defeats the purpose of the program.”

Suarez said 85 percent of Filipinos are already members of PhilHealth.

“How do we bridge the gap for those not yet PhilHealth accredited?” he asked.

Suarez said the minority bloc proposed a standard procedure for determining the unemployment rate as in the SONA, unemployment was a mere 6.9 percent.

“However, according to the latest SWS survey, unemployment increased by a full 10 percentage points to 34.4 percent, an all-time high of nearly 14 million jobless Filipinos,” he said.

“If we are to deliver true legislative and executive policy changes, then our statistical bases should be uniform.”

Suarez said it is also the duty of opposition lawmakers to alert the administration about the rampant smuggling that is now on-going in ports.

“This is exemplified by the mind-boggling disappearance of 2,000 container vans early this year,” he said.

“Imagine the lost revenues for the government because of that incident.”

Suarez said the administration has to do something about rising criminality, as the National Capital Region Police Office recorded a total of 29,231 crimes from January to June, a figure 63.8 percent higher than the 18,671 crimes reported during the first six months of 2011.

Suarez said cases involving criminals on motorcycles have been recorded in incidents with 355 victims, and 19 suspects have been arrested and 12 others killed in encounters with police. – Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica