I’m sure our readers have notice that I didn’t grade the first year of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, simply because first, I didn’t vote for him, hence it would have been natural for me to give him a very low grade. But I have too much respect for the Office of the President to grade a sitting President on his first year in office, especially one who was obviously ill-prepared to take on this enormous task. Yes, while I may have been critical of P-Noy, it is not because I want him to fail, but rather because I want him to succeed. Because if P-Noy fails, the whole nation fails with him.
If there is a bright light emanating from Malacañang Palace, first it is that P-Noy has decided to sell his Porsche! This is positive news that at least proves that P-Noy listens to criticisms, especially when the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showed that 48 percent of the 1,200 respondents frowned on the President’s purchase of this luxurious sports car.
The second bright light coming from the dark walls of Malacañang was the assumption of P-Noy’s running mate, former Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas as Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). Let me say it here that many of us in Cebu were for Mar Roxas to run for President, until events overtook him, where he ended up as P-Noy’s running mate. While Sec. Mar calls himself the “Paracetamol” of P-Noy, I still say that P-Noy should immediately fire those Cabinet Secretaries that give him headaches.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not turning soft on P-Noy. In fact my wish is for the President to prove me wrong . . . something that seems a bit farfetched at this time. It has been my fervent desire to see a government run like heaven by Filipinos, but it seems that we have not yet overcome the curse of President Manuel Quezon. But with good governance practices I am positive that we will get there . . . someday . . . I hope.
Meanwhile, the first anniversary of the infamous Aug. 23 slaughter of eight Hong Kong tourists is fast coming and I hope that by that time, P-Noy would have done something to right the wrongs that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. But has the officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) changed since then? If you read last Tuesday’s Philippine STAR (page 17), about a “mis-encounter” between two Quezon City plainclothes policemen who figured in a shooting incident, both thought that they were criminals. This is the sad and sorry state of the PNP today almost a year after the embarrassing Aug. 23 incident that shocked the world.
Another very recent “boo-boo” was when last June 30 P-Noy signed EO No. 47 renaming the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO), then transferring an “attached” agency of the Office of the President to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
I already gathered from IT stakeholders here in Cebu that they were caught unaware about this executive order and were not even consulted about this. Again, we task P-Noy on his promise that his government would be one of consultation. So why sign an EO where stakeholders were not even consulted?
Because of this, Sen. Edgardo Angara is fuming mad why the President “demoted” this agency. He is right, the IT-BPO industry is the only bright light shining in the Philippine firmament, as we very recently overtook India as the number one IT-BPO on call centers in the world. Hence this move indeed sends the wrong signal that the Aquino administration isn’t giving this any importance at all.
Another erroneous Executive Order is EO No. 33 transferring the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) from the Office of the President to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). He ought to rescind EO No. 33 so he can help the disabled sector directly under his office.
Finally there is EO No. 29, the so-called Open Skies policy that is totally disadvantageous to the Filipino owned airline industry as it instead favors foreign airlines. I couldn’t help but notice a hardly noticeable ad in the STAR that declares, “P-Noy, Sana Patas Lang ang EO 29 . . . Fair Trade, Fair Open Skies”. The airline industry is having serious problems and I believe P-Noy should first help the Filipino owned airlines. Somehow, as I read a STAR article last Wednesday from Robert Lim Joseph, that Bali never had an Open Skies policy, which was one of the reasons why P-Noy agreed to sign this EO.
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.