Real score

It is really so unfortunate that the people of this country who are supposed to be PNoy’s “boss,” are still being continuously misled by him and the other officials now in power. Many of us who voted for him still hope that he and his cohorts in government finally realize that Filipinos will readily understand and bear no grudge at all if they just admit their mistakes and resolve never to commit them again. After all, “to err is human.” There is nothing wrong if people commit mistakes. What is wrong is when they commit the same mistakes over and over again.

Indeed last Thursday many of our countrymen were again greatly disappointed and dismayed at the sad spectacle that happened in the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). It was really so sad to see and hear another zarzuela in that “august” body. The hearing turned out to be another scripted inquiry where all the President’s men and his rah-rah boys in the Senate continue to tell the people that this administration has done nothing wrong or illegal under the DAP. 

More unfortunate here is the performance of PNoy’s Budget Secretary, the DAP’s main fabricator. He kept on insisting that there was nothing illegal with their acts under the DAP already declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In doing so he merely cited the provisions of an Administrative Code embodied in a mere Executive Order instead of the Constitution itself, the basic law of the land on which all laws, executive orders and other actions of the government must be based. It is really quite startling to see and hear a high government official completely ignoring the basic law of the land in claiming that their acts are legal. The least he could have done was to explain that the Code he was citing is in accordance with the Constitution.

The worse part in his explanation is his claim that the DAP is nothing new; that previous administrations including the administration of PNoy’s late mother Cory Aquino also had their own DAPs. Assuming this claim is correct, it is a clear admission that this administration has also copied a questionable practice of past administrations that has been the source of the chronic graft and corruption plaguing the government. There is no change at all or Walang pagbabago as he himself deplored during his campaign. Indeed, like the past administrations the present one is also “fooling all of the people all of the time.”

Another glaring instance where this administration has misled the people is on our population growth as the cause of poverty. It has in fact cited our country’s population growth for the passage of the RH law. Now, they are alarming us again because our population will already be 100 million and telling us that such big population will affect our economic growth. This is again very misleading. The fact is that, based on past and current experiences, the cause of poverty in the land is government corruption. Indeed as the start of his term PNoy himself told the people that “kung walang corrupt walang mahirap.” Yet when he pushed for the RH law, he blamed the population growth and not corruption as the cause of our continuing poverty; the reason why our economic growth is stunted and has slowed down.

The more misleading aspect here is that there is no mention at all of the fact that other countries which controlled the growth of their population are now regretting what they did. They express great alarm that their population is aging since no more children are born. In most of Europe and other parts of Asia like Japan and Singapore they have already reversed their family planning policy by encouraging couples to have more children. Yet in our country this administration is still bent in controlling our population growth by passing this controversial RH law supposedly to boost our economy. The worst part here is that it is using public funds to promote the dangerous artificial birth control methods instead of the harmless natural family planning method. It is misleading the people on the more proper and safer means of planning their family by prematurely implementing the RH law including portions of it that were already declared unconstitutional by the SC.

And so today when PNoy once more report to the people about the state of the nation (SONA), let us be more wary of what he will tell us regarding the real situation in our country. He may again paint a rosy picture of our present state and claim credit for alleged improvements and progress achieved by his administration. He may tell us once more that all the actions of his administration have benefitted the people even if the exact opposite is happening all around us.

It will indeed be quite a surprise and some sort of a miracle that this time he will be more straightforward and will no longer mislead us. It will really be a pleasant surprise if he instead reviews his promises in the past SONA and candidly tell us where he failed and where he succeeded. If he is really honest to the core as his drumbeaters repeatedly claims, he should tell us the real score and stop being self righteous. His SONA should also contain what social media calls as the SANA or what he promised to achieve but did not happen.

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