The last report card

For his final assessment of the state of the nation before he bows out of office, President Aquino can be expected to crow about his achievements, notably economic performance that earned for the nation its first-ever investment grade.

Among the promises delivered since his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) are the implementation of K to 12, the construction of more classrooms, the expansion of PhilHealth and conditional cash transfer coverage, and approval of the landmark Anti-Trust Law and amendments to the Procurement Law.

In limbo is his peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), although it has gone much farther than in the past and Congress is likely to pass a mangled version of the Bangsamoro Basic Law before Christmas.

Not outlined in his first SONA, but which he managed to enact against tough odds, were the Reproductive Health law and the sin tax law.

Also not announced in his SONA were detailed plans for waging his anti-corruption warfare, probably because there was no certainty of hitting some of the targets.

When P-Noy delivered his first SONA on July 26, 2010, Juan Ponce Enrile was the Senate president, Renato Corona was the chief justice and Merceditas Gutierrez was the ombudsman.

P-Noy did not stop railing openly against the chief justice and ombudsman, both of whom he perceived to be major roadblocks along his tuwid na daan or straight path, until both were forced out of their posts. And P-Noy likes to point to the arrest for plunder and detention without bail of three senators (he doesn’t name names) plus his predecessor as achievements in his anti-corruption campaign. What P-Noy wants is a conviction before he steps down, but the pace of justice is something beyond his control. At least the accused mastermind of the pork barrel scam has started serving a life term – although for serious illegal detention rather than plunder.

Those developments were indeed significant in the battle against corruption. In his final year in office, however, scandals that have hounded P-Noy’s own officials and allies, and his efforts to shield some of them in their fall from grace, are making avowed commitments to the straight path wear thin.  

*      *      *

Five years of P-Noy will be measured against his 2010 campaign slogan, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”

If there’s no corruption, there’s no poverty. Corrupt dictators of South Korea and a few other prosperous countries in fact give a stronger case for efficient and decisive management, although they ended up in prison after leading their countries to prosperity. But candidate Noynoy Aquino’s 2010 slogan resonated after the long string of scandals that had rocked the Arroyo and Estrada administrations.

Today official statistics show that the poverty rate has barely budged from its levels in 2010 – a fact that has baffled some of P-Noy’s boosters in the foreign community.

Nearly 30 million Pinoys remain mahirap, with a large chunk classified as extremely poor. And corruption remains very much around, in both the national and local governments. Influence peddling remains rampant in the system of promotions and assignments, which in turn aggravates corruption particularly in the judiciary and prosecution service, the police and Bureau of Customs.

P-Noy’s favorite cop has received the unprecedented punishment of dismissal from the police service for plunder, with additional indictments in connection with the deaths of 44 police commandos. The Vice President, long seen as a close friend of the Aquinos and a member of the daang matuwid Cabinet until a few weeks ago, is fending off accusations of corruption against him and his family.

People are still waiting for P-Noy to fulfill his promise to be run over by a train, together with his political party president and transport secretary, if light railway services did not improve. Thanks to atrocious incompetence and alleged corruption, the services have gotten worse.

After the zeal in putting three opposition senators and their aides in detention without bail for plunder, the prosecution momentum sputtered in pursuing administration allies implicated in the pork barrel scandal.

P-Noy himself, together with his BFF Budget chief Butch Abad who has been accused of designing the Disbursement Acceleration Program, could end up in detention without bail. The Supreme Court, after all, ruled that key points in the DAP were unconstitutional and those behind it could be held liable.

These days, speculation touches not only on who will get P-Noy’s endorsement but also on who among the presidential wannabes will most likely make a serious effort to keep him out of jail once he loses his presidential immunity from suit.

*      *      *

P-Noy will also be measured in terms of performance. During his first SONA, Prisco Nilo was the head of the weather bureau. Nilo deserves special mention because he was promptly sacked for what P-Noy deemed to be failure on the job. Nilo later opted for early retirement. If the same high performance standard had been imposed on others, several Cabinet members and bureau chiefs should have been axed just as promptly.

The poor performance partly accounts for P-Noy’s weakness in achieving the “foremost agenda” in his first SONA: creating jobs through the growth of industries.

“Growth will only be possible if we streamline processes to make them predictable, reliable and efficient for those who want to invest,” he said. “What used to be a checklist of 36 documents will be shortened to a list of six, and the old eight-page application form will be whittled down to one page.”

I can see investors and entrepreneurs – whether micro, small, medium and large – shaking their heads. P-Noy also urged local government units to review their procedures and streamline processes “to make business start-ups easier.” His other BFF the interior and local government secretary should have been assigned as coordinator of this task, but the guy was busy dreaming of succeeding P-Noy.

Other failures: P-Noy’s first executive order created the Truth Commission. It never took off.

He said 50 percent of extralegal killings were on their way to resolution and he promised to “hold murderers accountable.” Relatives of human rights victims under his watch are among those marching against the administration today. Journalists are still being killed, and the Philippines remains among the five worst countries in the impunity index because of failure to bring the murderers to justice.

In his first SONA, P-Noy declared: “The mandate we received last May 10 is testament to the fact that the Filipino continues to hope for true change. The situation is not what it was before; we can all dream again.”

Considering the enormity of problems in this country, President Noynoy deserves good marks in his report card. But the country is behind its neighbors and can do much better. It should do much better under new leadership. The dream should turn to reality.