‘Worth living for’

PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III’s penultimate State of the Nation Address was by far his most peaceable as he did not harp against the past administration—much. It also showed us the emotional side of a President who is often perceived to be ice-cold and somewhat indifferent, as he now asks for unity and a collective effort to bring the country further forward.

While it is true that being a President is full of challenges and hardships, this has not dawned on his critics, especially the leftist minority who would want us to believe that they can do better. As much as burning effigies and being hosed down in the process still has romantic and adventurous values, they are as meaningless as the words they are spewing.

“Oust US-[whoever is President]” has not only become passé; it has also become a punch line. For what is the use of changing Presidents—or ousting them as our left-leaning brethren ask—if we do not go to the root of the problem? All incoming Presidents would ultimately fail given the rotten system of governance we currently have.

The problem is not the President. It is the system that is in place that largely allows corrupt practices to occur. And if Mr. Aquino is hell-bent on reforming these to pave the way for whoever would succeed him then the least we could do is support him.

The Philippines has been through a 20-year dictatorship and another nine years of a splurging administration and fixing all that went wrong during those tumultuous times may take a long time. However, starting to fix them would only need all of the Filipino peoples moving towards the same direction.

And this is what Mr. Aquino is asking from his “bosses”.

As it is, the needed reforms to wean this country away from the culture of corruption that has since permeated our collective values would entail every Filipino’s support. For every one of us would now need to prove that the Filipino peoples are worth living for.

‘Worth fighting for’

THE struggle for reforms however should not take any shortcuts. This is basically what the Development Acceleration Program was all about. It may have been coated with good intentions but if it did not go through the proper process, it would simply be unconstitutional as the Supreme Court ruled—or illegal as every ordinary Filipino now sees.

As much as the DAP has been praised even by international financial bodies, the fact remains that Mr. Aquino and his cabinet took extraordinary shortcuts to achieve their ends of boosting spending to stimulate the economy. The economy did in fact moved—and how it moved. The Philippines soon has the highest economic growth rate, second only to China, but this should have been achieved using constitutional means.

And this is something Mr. Aquino may have realized.

In his SONA, Mr. Aquino specifically stated that he would ask Congress for supplemental budget for erstwhile DAP-funded projects. If at all, this signifies a shift from his combative stance towards the Supreme Court to accepting the High Tribunal’s decision on DAP.

However, this did not preclude the President from asking Congress to draft a joint resolution to clear the law on budgetary transfers. As much as his critics would see this as treading on dangerous grounds, it is actually a welcome development to fix the budgetary mess left by the previous administration which relied heavily on reenacted budgets and which technically declares all of previous year’s appropriations as “savings.” And as it goes, the “savings” are spent on the then-President’s say so with accountability thrown out the window.

If Mr. Aquino is sincere in his intent to reform everything in government that needs reforming, then we say it is really “worth fighting for.” And for all that has been said and thrown his way, it may be the right time for all of us—the Filipino peoples—to examine ourselves and try to decipher what we have really done to help our country, our fellow Filipinos, and ourselves.