News Analysis: Congress allies to ensure passage of Aquino's reform agenda

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - President Benigno Aquino III's reform agenda is expected to continue in the last three years of his administration thanks to a near sweep of administration-backed candidates in the senatorial elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed the top eight winning senatorial bets - Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Nancy Binay, Juan Edgardo Angara, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Aquilino Pimentel III and Antonio Trillanes IV. Except for Binay, who came from opposition United Nationalist Alliance, the five other senators-elect ran under Team PNoy  the administration-backed coalition.

The Comelec is yet to proclaim the three other senators included in the "Magic 12", but partial results show that one of them, Cynthia Villar, is also part of Team PNoy, making it a 9-3 sweep for the administration-backed coalition.

Analysts expect that Aquino would be able to pass crucial laws that will fulfill his campaign promise of eradicating poverty and corruption under his six-year term given that he now has solid control of both chambers of Congress. After all, not only did Team PNoy score big in the senatorial race but seven hold-over senators of the 24-member senate are also considered allies of the president. Aquino's party also continues to dominate the 250- member House of Representatives.

"The administration now enjoys a commanding majority in both the Senate and the lower house so any initiative which will be pushed (by the president) will surely get through," Edmund Tayao, assistant professor of political science at the University of Santo Tomas, said in an interview with Xinhua.

With his allies now dominating both houses of the legislature, Tayao said "the president doesn't have any reason not to accomplish his goals."

Indeed, Aquino, who tirelessly campaigned for his candidates, appealed to over 50 million Filipino voters by stressing in campaign sorties and political ads that these candidates are his partners in his reform agenda. Aquino enjoys a high trust rating, and this, combined with the fact that he fielded a slate of popular candidates  five of the proclaimed senators are reelectionists while the topnotcher, former censors chief Grace Poe is the daughter of a well-loved action star - secured Team PNoy's victory in the polls.

Having allies in Congress has allowed Aquino to push key laws that promote economic reform and social justice. These include the passage of the sin tax law that raised alcohol and cigarette taxes in order to boost revenues which can help plug the fiscal deficit and channel more funds to health and social services; and the controversial reproductive health bill that provides government- funded contraception, sex education and maternal care to all Filipinos.

In his remaining years as the country's chief executive, Aquino still has to push for laws that will fulfill his ambitious reform agenda, including laws that will expand health care and other social services to the poor and impose higher mining taxes.

But perhaps the most important legislation that needed to be approved before Aquino steps down in 2016 is a law that will end the decades-long insurgency in Mindanao, southern Philippines. The insurgency led by separatist Muslim rebels has claimed thousands of lives and derailed growth in an otherwise resource-rich region.

The recent signing of a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is seen to finally end the conflict. But that peace pact will be useless unless Congress will pass the Basic Bangsamoro Law that will create a new autonomous political entity in Mindanao.

Whether or not Aquino's allies will deliver will only be determined once the 16th Congress opens in July.

But Cid Terosa, vice dean of the School of Economics, University of Asia and the Pacific, expects that the 16th Congress will give the president a chance to "push for more reforms and to see some of them realized in a shorter period of time."

"In a way, the victory of the administration coalition makes the power to choose what to do and the power to implement choices quite accessible to the president," Terosa said.