SONA promises from 2010-2014

MANILA, Philippines - As President Aquino delivers his sixth and final State of the Nation Address today, The Philippine STAR looks back at promises he has made in the past five years.

2010

• Investigate irregularities in government funds – calamity funds, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), National Power Corp. (Napocor), and National Food Authority (NFA)

• Introduce a zero-based approach in budgeting

• Improve tax collection and file charges against smugglers and tax evaders

• Punish perpetrators of extrajudicial killings

• Form a Truth Commission, headed by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, to go after allegedly corrupt officials

• Forge public-private partnerships (PPP)

• Build infrastructure, including an “efficient railway system,” to boost the tourism and agriculture sectors

• Generate more jobs

• Streamline business processes through Build-Operate-and-Transfer projects

• Upgrade the basic education cycle from 10 years to the global standard of 12 years (by implementing the K to 12 program)

• Provide further assistance to the needy through conditional cash transfer, PhilHealth coverage, and the National Household Targeting System

• Push for legislative agenda through the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC)

• Fiscal Responsibility Bill

• Anti-Trust Law

• National Land Use Bill

• Armed National Defense Act

• Whistleblower’s Bill

• Strengthening of the Witness Protection Program

• Initiate peace talks

2011

•Stop the use of “wang-wang” – which Aquino said symbolizes abuse of authority and the mindset of entitlement

• Boost economic growth through an “innovative fiscal approach” and prudent government spending

• Improve the energy sector by attracting more investors, exploring oil and natural gas resources, and constructing a power plant in the Luzon grid “so that by 2014, our country will have a cheaper, more reliable source of energy”

• Initiate reforms in the DPWH, previously regarded as among the most corrupt government agencies

• End excessive importation of rice and promote rice self-sufficiency

• Enhance national security by

• Providing housing benefits for military and police personnel as well as employees of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Bureau of Fire Protection

• Acquiring modern equipment for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)

• Elevating the case on the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

• Better enforcement of the law to curb motorcycle and car thefts and human trafficking cases

• Create more jobs by reviewing and analyzing curricula through the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Department of Education (DepEd)

• Expand the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, PhilHealth coverage, and National Household Targeting System

• Synchronize the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections with national elections

• Address flooding in Metro Manila by establishing sustainable reforestation activities and relocating informal settlers

• Encourage “Filipinos for Filipinos” projects, such as low-cost traps that kill mosquito larvae, coconut coir fibers to strengthen roads, landslide sensors, flood warning systems, and a monorail system developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the University of the Philippines

• Compensate victims of martial law

• Improve benefits and pension system for house helpers and retired soldiers, respectively

• Expand DOST scholarship grants

• Establish facilities for disaster response

• Develop Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), National Electrification Administration (NEA) and PTV 4

2012

• Cut wasteful spending for projects with high costs but few public benefits

• Improve anti-disaster initiatives by using technology to forewarn the public

• Increase public access to government health care programs

• Pass the Sin Tax Bill, which would make “vice more expensive while at the same time raising more money for health”

• Address backlog in the education sector, aiming for a 1:1 book-to-student ratio

• Increase the budget for state universities and colleges

• Building road networks and infrastructure, upgrade and remodel airports, and renovate structural defects at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3

• Spur tourism growth, aimed at 10 million tourists a year

• Develop the agriculture sector by implementing irrigation and certified seeds programs

• Implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

• Reduce crime rates and strengthen the police force through the procurement of more guns and by providing housing incentives

• Implement the AFP Modernization Program

• End cash advances for government agencies in the ARMM to prevent misuse and abuse of funds

• Push through with the peace negotiations

• Craft Executive Order 79 on mining, curb illegal mining and initiate reforestation programs

• Implement performance-based incentives to government employees – in which bonuses are based on the agency’s ability to meet annual targets

• Address the dispute over the West Philippine Sea

• Pursue “genuine justice” – filing of plunder case against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and continuing the Maguindanao massacre trial

•             Amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act to hold the corrupt accountable

2013

• Strengthen the agriculture sector – particularly the rice, coconut, and fishing industries – and reduce importation of rice and employ intercropping methods

• Implement CARPER

• Turn over lots to qualified beneficiaries and serve all Notices of Coverage to lands covered by the agrarian reform by the end of the year

• Develop mechanisms for disaster preparedness, such as the creation of multi-hazard mapping to identify high-risk areas and the modernization of weather detection technology

• Address flooding in Metro Manila (with an allocation of P.62 billion) and relocate informal settlers living along major waterways

• Implement recovery and rehabilitation programs to calamity-stricken areas

• Turning over housing units to survivors of Typhoon Pablo

• Use reclaimed lands to generate funds for the pension of retired policemen and soldiers

• Review of Presidential Decree 1638 (retirement and separation benefits for military personnel) and Republic Act 8551 (PNP reorganization law)

• Amend Social Security System (SSS) pension scheme

• Better law enforcement by hiring civilian personnel to focus on administrative work in the police force

• Probe the killing of Ozamis Gang members and the Atimonan shooting incident

• Pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law

• Amend and enact the Cabotage Law, Fiscal Incentives Rationalization Bill, and Land Administration Reform Bill

• Decrease government subsidy in the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) commuter systems

• Decongest traffic in Metro Manila through an integrated transport system and better infrastructure, such as two connector roads joining the North and South Luzon Expressways

• Address looming power shortage, particularly the rotating blackouts in Mindanao

• Initiate reforms in government-owned and controlled corporations – Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)

• Investigate irregularities in the use of funds of TESDA, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), and the Philippine National Police (PNP) as well as incompetence and lapses in the Bureau of Immigration (BI), National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and Bureau of Customs (BOC)

• Evaluate Civil Service Code and Presidential Decree 1 (which established the presidential form of government)

2014

• Create more jobs through TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program

• Improve debt management through better tax collection and prudent spending

• Encourage more foreign investments

• Upgrade aviation sector to promote tourism

• Foster better labor relations through DOLE’s Single Entry Approach

• Increase budget for infrastructure “to speed up the transport of goods and services, and will help us ensure that we can go head to head with overseas markets”

• Source greater water supply by constructing and repairing dams

• Pursue rehabilitation and recovery efforts, including reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and implementation of livelihood interventions to survivors of the Zamboanga siege, Bohol earthquake, Super Typhoon Yolanda onslaught

• Reinforce disaster preparedness in local government units “through a modern and comprehensive forecasting system”

• Pursue modernization of the AFP – procurement of equipment and other utilities, establishing a naval command center in Palawan

• Continue the pursuit of lawless elements

• Apprehension of New People’s Army (NPA) members, including chairman and secretary-general Benito and Wilma Tiamzon

• Arrest of suspects in the murder of Ernesto Balolong, Richard King, Ferdinand Pastor

• Initiate reforms in the Bureau of Customs

• Creation of new agency to look into processes

• Appointment of a new commissioner and deputy commissioners

• Distribute lands covered by agrarian reform

• Completion of cadastral surveys by 2015

• Address overlapping claims in the ARMM

• Extend the filing of Notices of Coverage

• Continue peace negotiations with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the forging of proposal for the Bangsamoro Basic Law

• Increase the budget for infrastructure in the ARMM

• Meet growing energy demand

• Make preparations for the El Niño phenomenon

• Address rice hoarding, introduce modern farming equipment, and enhance irrigation system, farm-to-market roads and training programs

• Pass a supplemental budget for 2014 in light of the Supreme Court decision ruling some provisions of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) unconstitutional “so that the implementation of our programs and projects need not be compromised.”