Today, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III (PNoy) will deliver his last State of the Nation Address (SONA). Apart from the expected announcement of his anointed one (administration’s presidential candidate), he shall surely enumerate his accomplishments the past 12 months and will definitely present his “to do” list in the remaining months of his term.
Looking back, a little over five years ago (June 30, 2010), PNoy delivered his inaugural speech. It was not just refreshing but was so inspiring to some extent. Though it may have sounded no different from the usual rhetoric an incoming president does, the speech was delivered by a leader who chose not just to be among us but to serve us and lead us towards “Tuwid na Daan”. We are his bosses, PNoy then so declared.
Indeed, PNoy’s selection of words in his inaugural speech was impeccable and the delivery was simply perfect. However, no matter how impeccable the choices were, and how perfect it was delivered, the fact remained that the entire nation looked up to him not just for a day. Rhetoric, well-rehearsed at that, will always be right and appropriate. Seeing it realized, however, needs strong commitment and wider participation.
Truth be told, he can’t do it alone. Now, he must have realized that he, probably, had tapped the best and the brightest among his peers for cabinet positions, and, yet, working with men and women he never picked, was unavoidable. These are men and women where some of whom may have been voted unethically by his fellow countrymen to their respective offices. These are men and women who must have well enhanced their acting prowess and financial might and obtained their positions expensively.
Certainly, PNoy was also aware as to how these crooks get them back and knew exactly that this will not come from their salaries. Just as we all know that they can only recover them through ways that made our country undisputedly on top of every corruption survey and, despondently, at the bottom of every poverty incidences survey globally.
To address these concerns to a certain extent, PNoy chose to be different, it seemed. Apparently opting for women power (with key or sensitive positions occupied by women), he took bolder steps (albeit, suspiciously, to some) to address the country’s worsening graft and corruption incidences. Selectively implemented, as some critics and political opponents alleged, the results, so far, have been promising, at the very least. To recall, for the first time in many years, the Filipinos understood what we may call the very essence of the word transparency. This is so, as we witnessed the senate’s impeachment hearing of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
As a result, from disgraceful performances since time immemorial, we are now among the upper 50% of the 175 countries included in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) survey of Transparency International (TI) in 2014 at 85th place. TI’s corruption surveys “draw on assessments and opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions. These surveys and assessments include questions related to the bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and the effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts”.
To recall, for many years, we were among the cellar dwellers in the CPI surveys. The truth is, in 2010, we were 134th. In the 2011 survey (which included 183 countries) we were ranked 129th. In the 2012 survey (which included 176 countries), our country ranked 105th. In 2013, we moved 11 notches higher to 94th. So that, at 85th place in the 2014 survey, we were among the upper 50% of the 175 countries included in the survey. Not only that, we really have improved our scores. From a score of 34 in 2012, we went up by 2 to 36 in 2013, then, 38 in 2014.
Recently, with corruption still rampant, multimillion worth of cases are filed with the Sandiganbayan against prominent officials for alleged corruption. Sadly though, despite these cases being filed, it seems that corruption would still persist. As we all know, some presidential hopefuls are perceived to be corrupt.
Such is the sad reality of our kind of politics. A kind of politics that is mainly money-driven. Where ordinary men from nowhere initially presented themselves to the people for service and became powerful once elected. Or men who are already successful businessmen in their own right and run either to protect their interests or widen them.
Clearly, therefore, corruption has now become a habit. So that, we have to deal squarely with these crooks by not electing them into office. Otherwise, with these unscrupulous politicians at the helm, coupled with a rotten system that these men and women continue to comfortably adhere, we shall soon see this habit becoming the country’s norm.