The Aquino administration’s first year in office was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a smashing success. Nor was it, as harsh critics contend, an unmitigated disaster. The truth may lie somewhere in between.
President Aquino assumed office on June 30 last year with a clear mandate from the people, having garnered 15 million votes, almost double the number of votes cast for the second placer, former President Joseph Estrada. Thus, at his inaugural, when he announced that he intended to live up to his campaign slogan, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,” and that he considered the Filipino people his “boss,” there was much hope that the new government would usher in a new beginning anchored on integrity and honesty in public office.
Thus far, there have been no sensational revelations of large-scale corruption under the Aquino administration. Perhaps, the anticorruption campaign has gained so much traction that public officials now fear being haled to court for violating the anti-graft law. Or perhaps, the grafters are only lying low and waiting for the right opportunity to make a killing through tainted contracts. In any case, this is a plus point for the one-year-old administration.
The other side of the coin, however, is the rejection by the Supreme Court of the creation of a Truth Commission that would have looked into corruption cases under the previous administration. With its investigation of past corruption cases stymied, the Aquino administration finds itself unable to aggressively pursue the prosecution of officials alleged to have helped themselves to the public treasury under the Arroyo administration.
The President himself is viewed as incorruptible. But it remains to be seen whether his clean reputation and pledge to go hammer and tongs after the corrupt would be enough deterrent to malfeasance in the bureaucracy.
The economic program of the Aquino administration, embodied in the 2011-2016 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan, has come under fire from critics who see it as a mere rehash of the failed globalization and privatization policies implemented over the past decades that have not really led to sustained economic growth nor significantly reduced poverty levels. A militant party-list group sees the plan as “problematic” because it “does not offer anything new in terms of strategies for more genuinely inclusive economic growth.”
The first-quarter economic growth was less than 5 percent, which is far from the 7-percent to 8-percent projection. Economists attributed this to underspending by the government. If the scant resources are being expended, that can only mean that the government is being too prudent in fiscal management, and skimping on resources where they are badly needed.
The Aquino administration wants the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program to pave the way for massive infrastructure development. But of the initial list of 10 PPP projects that include many big-ticket transportation projects, none has yet been implemented. While project-gestation periods take time, there’s trouble in the horizon when the government fails to stir enough excitement among investors to part with their money.
The government has had better success with its Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program, which, according to the main implementing agency, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, now reaches more beneficiaries. As an antipoverty mechanism, the CCT has been heavily criticized for fostering mendicancy. But it cannot be denied that in helping the poorest of the poor with monthly subsistence, the program manifests the government’s concern for their welfare.
The government’s delivery of social services, such as education and health, leaves much to be desired. The opening of the school year, for instance, highlighted the problem of overcrowding in public elementary and high schools, particularly in Metro Manila. Yet, the Department of Education wants to immediately implement its K+12 program that would extend basic schooling to a total of 13 years, instead of 11, unmindful of the fact that many children from the poor and low-income groups drop out of school early because of poverty.
Despite these, it would seem that President Aquino remains popular, with his net satisfaction ratings at +46 percent, down from a high of +87 percent in the last quarter of last year, to be sure, but still satisfactory. Seven out of 10 Filipinos still support him, and that is a plus factor for him as he enters his second year.
Mr. Aquino assumed office a year ago with the nation full of optimism for the future of Philippine democracy. He cannot afford to fail, or else he risks alienating the very people who voted for him and entrusted him with the mandate to govern.
