‘Even political opposition admits progress in gov’t’

BOSTON – Even the political opposition acknowledges the transformation his administration has made in the Philippines, President Aquino said here on Monday.

“Today, even the political opposition grants that we have made tremendous progress, which the Filipino people, of course, have seen for themselves,” Aquino said in a speech at the JFK Forum at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The President said the political opposition had also been afraid of criticizing the reform measures he had initiated.

“Our experience has taken us from a party that not too long ago was labeled as impractical do-gooders, to an administration that few in the opposition dare attack publicly, for fear of a backlash from all who have benefited from our programs; after all, attacking our reform agenda would mean attacking the very people whose votes they were courting,” he said.

He said the country’s transformation came about “because we asked ‘Why not?’ We got here for refusing to give up and by always asking, why settle for, or endure, the status quo when we can change it?”

“Like JFK, Ninoy and Cory, each one has the capacity to dream, to die, to live, to fight, to stand for something, to ask ‘why not’ when the challenges seem insurmountable. Thus can we transform the world for the better,” he added.

He also noted that none of the senatorial candidates who lost in the recent May 2013 elections, including those who may have thought they were cheated, filed any electoral fraud case.

Aquino said nine of the 12 candidates he endorsed won.

“In fact, we won nine out of the top 10 positions, with the opposition’s highest candidate winning fifth, and the rest hanging on to the bottom two places,” he said.

“This is not to say that everyone in our country is willing to traverse the straight path with us. There is a saying about Philippine politics: There are only two kinds of candidates: those who won, and those who were cheated,” he said.

Meanwhile, before he delivered his speech at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, Aquino met with US Rep. Joseph Kennedy III at Bill’s Pizzeria in Newton, where they shared a pepperoni pizza.

Kennedy, who recently visited the Philippines, invited Aquino for a meeting if he travels to Massachusetts.