PNoy gets zero score from House minority in counter-SONA

The House minority on Monday gave President Benigno Aquino III a zero score for his first year in office, after he supposedly failed to fulfill his anti-corruption and economic agenda. In his speech to counter Aquino's SONA last week, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman criticized the administration for its lack of concrete plans for the country’s development. The House minority is traditionally given the opportunity to give its reply to the President's SONA a day after the actual speech. The opposition's counter-SONA, originally scheduled last Tuesday, was however postponed due to bad weather. "The presidency must be above symbols... It should be an exemplar of competence and industry. It should be the compass for national direction. It should be the propeller for growth and development. The people deserve no less," Lagman said in his speech delivered at the House plenary. He added that the President was not able to deliver on his centrepiece agenda to rid the government of corruption, describing exposés during the past year as mere "headline materials." "The anti-corruption campaign of the President concentrates on high profile cases involving billions of pesos and national figures... but these exposés are peripheral to the lives of the multitude," he said. Lagman likewise called on the administration to focus instead on "petty acts of corruption and abuse that bedevil" the common Filipino’s life. "This may not project the President as an indefatigable crusader against venalities, but it will immensely benefit his unheralded bosses," he said. No priority bills passed Lagman also slammed the Aquino administration for its failure to follow up the passage of its priority bills due to "sluggish work habits." "After the applause has subsided, he [Aquino] conveniently forgets that he has to roll up his sleeves and get actual work done," he said. He also pointed how some of the President’s executive orders and priority legislations, such as the directive to create the Truth Commission and the law postponing the polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, are against the 1987 Constitution. Lagman also said that until now, no public-private partnership (PPP) has been fully implemented by the administration, contrary to the President’s promise last year. "What has ensued instead is the foreign businessmen’s dismal disinterest in investing in the country because of the Aquino administration’s foot-dragging and inefficient preparation of blueprints and implementing regulations," he said. He then challenged the President to address issues that were missed out from the SONA, such as land reform and a concrete labor plan. "The patience of the Filipinos can be proverbially enduring, but their eardrums are fragile and their sensibilities cannot be repeatedly demeaned," he said. As of posting time, the speech was ongoing. — RSJ, GMA News