Wanted: A national transformation

When President Benigno Aquino III took the reins of power in Malacañang on July 2010, one of his first pronouncements was "The Philippines is open for business." It was as if the Philippines was not open for business already. But four years into his presidency, while the Philippine economy is faring much better than most ASEAN nations, our biggest problems are still the lack of direct foreign investments and the widening gap between the haves and the have nots!

Before all else, let me point out to you clearly that if the Philippine economy is faring much better than our ASEAN neighbors, it is due to the fact that Overseas Filipino Workers contribute some P24 billion annually to our nation's coffers, which the other ASEAN nations could only sigh with envy. We know too well that Filipinos abroad have become the "most coveted employee" in the world and we should be proud of it. But woe to those who say that our economy is doing good because of the good governance policies under the Aquino regime.

Last Thursday morning during the opening ceremonies for the World Economic Forum for East Asia (WEF) ABS-CBN had a banner on its Live TV coverage which read, "The Philippines the next economic miracle of Asia." I pondered and analyzed this phrase and ended up with the realization that it was just another Yellow propaganda of the Aquino regime, trying to convince the WEF that we've finally made it, which is why most of the Filipinos attending the WEF say in chorus that the Philippines is open for business. But that's not the reality on the ground!

Come to think of it. If we admit that the Philippines is the next economic miracle in Asia, it is not far from the truth because it would take a miracle for the Philippines to grow under the Aquino regime. Of course, I expect pro-PNoy people accuse me of not giving PNoy a chance to succeed but in truth, he bungled his presidency from day one that he took over the country, which started with our troubles with Hong Kong during the hostage incident in the Quirino grandstand where the president took his oath of office, where eight Hong Kong tourists were massacred.

He steadfastly refused to apologize for that incident claiming that he was not a party to the incident. He conveniently forgot that the killer was a Philippine National Police which falls under the Office of the President and therefore, he had command responsibility over this.

Things got worse when without any provocation, he launched an attack against the Catholic bishops in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office  exposing them as "Pajero Bishops." Evidently his purpose was to distance himself from the Catholic Church because he was going to launch a frontal attack against the family unit with his Reproductive Health Bill. The rest as you know is history. He may have won that round when the RH Law was passed but the Supreme Court removed its penal clause and rendered this law unimplementable.

Incidentally I'm invited to a meeting today at the Archbishop's Residence with anti-pork barrel groups from Manila. I gathered that Manila lawyers would brief the Cebu Coalition versus pork barrel on their call to remove the pork barrel through legislation. Since I cannot attend this meeting due to a previous engagement, let me just state it clearly here that the recent events like the release of the so-called Janet Napoles List or "Napolist" has given us an idea of the depth of the pork scam and the strong possibility that the Senate would whitewash this list. Yes, we have already suspected that the list coming from Malacañang has already been sanitized.

In short, the recent events have already overtaken this issue. Many likeminded Filipinos no longer have any trust and confidence in the Senate and Congress as many of them, especially the majority in the Senate, have been implicated in this pork mess. So let's be practical, do you believe that we can coax these crooks posing as honorable members of the House of Representatives that they would write a "finis" to the pork barrel through legislation? I for one no longer trust the Senate and Congress. If they had any delicadeza, they should have resigned or at least taken a six month leave of absence until they their names have been cleared.

Just imagine those suspected criminals like Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla literally touting the government to arrest them and President Aquino doing nothing! What this nation needs is a national transformation so that we can truly transform this nation and have a government that is truly led by the Filipino people and for the Filipino people.

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