Cayetano uses song to press PNoy to state plan for PHL

Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday urged President Benigno Aquino III to clearly state his vision for the country, and the senator did so with words from a hit 70s song. "Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Do you know?" Cayetano asked Aquino during his Kontra State of the Nation Address (SONA) on the Senate floor while the song was playing in the background. The questions he posed are from the ballad “Theme from Mahogany" which American singer Diana Ross originally sang in the 1970s. In his speech, Cayetano cited the state of education, health, employment, peace and order, and status of infrastructure in the country. He said that the quality of education in the country "leaves a lot to be desired" because it is ranked 69th in the world. He also noted that one in 10 children in our country will never get to step into school. Cayetano added that the country is in need of 152,000 classrooms, 104,000 teachers, 13 million chairs, and roughly 96 million textbooks. In terms of employment, he said the Aquino administration must boost the current employment rate. He said almost 50 percent of Filipinos are actually jobless contrary to some statistics. In terms of peace and order, Cayetano said that the police force is suffering from the lack of resources, adding that only 75 percent of police officers were issued firearms and that only 24 percent have adequate training on case investigation. In terms of infrastructure, he said the quality of the country's over-all infrastructure is ranked 113th, while some of its Asian neighbors ranked in the top 10. Eradicate corruption But in order to address all these issues, Cayetano said the Aquino administration must first eradicate graft and corruption so that the country can finally move forward. "We need an organized, pragmatic way of fighting graft and corruption," he said. He said that Aquino must finally resolve all the graft and corruption cases that have been "haunting" the government. Among them are the Hello Garci controversy; fertilizer fund scam; swine scam; NBN-ZTE deal; abuse of PCSO intelligence funds; abuse of Pagcor funds; and the alleged overpricing of PNP choppers. "Ang sabi ng Pangulo, kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. Mawawalan ng corrupt kung sila’y kakasuhan at ikukulong (The President himself said that if there were no corrupt officials, there would be no poor people. But we'll only be able to get rid of the corrupt if they will be charged and jailed)," he said. "We can't keep repeating history," he added. The senator suggested that the "best way" to prevent incumbent officials and current employees of the government from committing corruption is to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill — a landmark piece of legislation that will lift the shroud of secrecy over government transactions and data. "Every citizen will become a graft buster," he said. He added that the Bank Secrecy Law must exempt public officials must from protection. "Kung walang kinurakot, dapat walang ikatakot (If you're not being corrupt, you should not be afraid of anything)," he said. - ELR/KBK, GMA News