The President’s final year

PRESIDENT Aquino is in his final lap as he counts his last year in office. Now that he is in his fifth year, he is left with less than 365 days before a new president replaces him. This time, one cannot help but ask if he is the exemplary leader we thought he was. Were the lives of the Filipinos changed for the better in his presidency? Was he able to deliver all his promises or is he still sprinting to deliver them on his last year?

While poverty continues to plague our nation, I say he has achieved three noteworthy milestones that if continued may just very well lead to a better Philippines, i.e., accountability, transparency, and the rule of law.
On accountability

Under the Aquino administration, the Office of the Ombudsman has issued the most number of preventive suspensions and filed the most number of corruption cases against elected officials alleged in any forms of corruption. No official, from the lowest to the highest, was ever exempted from accountability. When the Office of the Ombudsman, in accordance with its constitutional mandate, finds compelling grounds to issue a preventive suspension order, it did. The Makati case with Mayor Binay is the recent proof to it.

On transparency
The Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) and the Commission on Audit’s (COA) effort of ensuring that all local governments are compliant to the full-disclosure policy by not only posting all their transactions on conspicuous places but also uploading them online for all the world to see is by far the most unnoticed yet the greatest milestone I would say that the Aquino administration has implemented. Their rewards incentives through the Seal of Good Local Governance as well as the Citizen’s charter have brought a lot of local governments on their toes and toil to be real agencies of service.

On the rule of law  I could mention few names to prove this point––we have Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, Janet Napoles, and, of course, who can forget the former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo? The Aquino administration is fearless and unwavering in its commitment to uphold the rule of law even against the highest ranking official. For that, I salute the present administration.

But I am far from being satisfied. The country’s economic condition remains thriving. No statistical data can refute what we see around us and even within our own families.

While businesses are booming, more and more people are still hungry and unemployed. The growth and progress are everything but inclusive.

The crime rate is up, insurgents are still present, and even the clamor of our Moro brothers for an Islamic region just shows much dissatisfaction to our present condition. Obviously, there is still more to be done, and I don’t think the 365 days of PNoy can do more other than hold the fortress until the next one sits. Just saying.

(Churchill Aguilar is a freelance consultant on local governance, strategic management, and maximizing human resources for greater productivity. He engages with cities, municipalities, and NGOs in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao providing capacity development and skills acquisition.)