PRESIDENT Aquino’s use of the term wang-wang 28 times in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) is understandable and expected because the banning of that loud and annoying siren in the streets is one of his few visible and concrete achievements in his one year in office, a legislator representing the youth said on Wednesday.

And while lauding and supporting Mr. Aquino for coining utak wang-wang as a symbol of corruption and abuse of power as it sharply reflects the unequal relations of power in Philippine society, Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino said the youth are not convinced that utak wang-wang represents all evils in society.

“There are other demons to slay like, for instance, utak haciendero. This evil is responsible for the continuing feudal bondage of millions of small farmers in the countryside. It’s similar to utak wang-wang but it could be worse since the despotic landlord doesn’t realize nor comprehend how his refusal to distribute his vast landholdings to poor tenants is already a legal, moral and political crime,” said Palatino.

“In fact, he [Mr. Aquino] doesn’t even accept the charge that he’s exploiting other people since he clings to the arrogant belief that his family is actually doing the farmers a favor by allowing them to work in the family-owned estate,” he added referring to the longtime dispute in the vast Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of the President.

The militant legislator said those with utak haciendero are insensitive to the poverty experienced by others, including the loyal peasants who work for them.

“What matters to them is their rising share from the profits of the hacienda and not the grim statistics about the suffering of their tenants,” Palatino said.

Because of this, Palatino said Mr. Aquino is guilty of being utak haciendero when he chose to highlight the positive grades given by credit-rating agencies than speak about the deplorable conditions of workers in the country.

Palatino noted that there was no substantial reference to the plight of workers even in the State of the Nation technical report because Mr. Aquino preferred the “abstract and essentially meaningless numbers of credit-rating agencies—which by the way should be distrusted because of their obvious culpability in the 2008 global financial crisis.”

Palatino reminded Mr. Aquino of philosopher Alain Badiou who said: “To count workers for nothing means that we count nothing but capital. What is counted is the level of the stock market, the euro, financial investment, competition and so on; the figure of the worker, on the other hand, counts for nothing.”

Following a number of criticisms on Mr. Aquino’s second Sona, Malacañang on Tuesday vowed to disprove its naysayers by delivering on its promises.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the assessment of the opposition—that the President’s Sona is “empty” and lacked focus—is like “a broken record.”

“If they say that our Sona is a rehash, I think their complaints and their statements are a rehash of what they expected our Sona to be. In fact, they were preparing and they were expecting GMA [former President Gloria Arroyo] bashing and we did not do that,” Lacierda said. He said the figures that the President had cited in the Sona “can be validated.”

“The more substantive portion of the speech can be found in the Sona Technical Report. And the details are there for them to verify,” Lacierda said.