Shock... and awe...

IN RETROSPECT

Ashley Manabat

"President Aquino should do well to stop the culture of impunity that continue to haunt members of the press working in the Philippines"

The most common sentiment among Kapampangans is that they were singled out by President Aquino's SONA in a most deplorable way. The president made it appear that Kapampangans have been wallowing in money under the Arroyo administration that other provinces like Pangasinan, which have been ravaged by Typhoon Pepeng last year, have been neglected.
In the President's Sona, he said of the total P108 million that was given to Pampanga, P105 million was given to a single district alone (referring to the province's second distrcit now represented in congress by former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo).This could well be described as an affront to Kapampangans since this is not true at all.
According to former Presidential Management Staff chief Elena Bautista-Horn, the money have yet to be disbursed. This was echoed by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman who said "Mr. Aquino had failed to understand how such a fund was used. He said a calamity fund covered not just the disasters that occurred in the current year but also the rehabilitation projects for the damage caused by calamities of previous years. He added that it was misleading to compare allocations for Pampanga with that of Pangasinan because the projects in the latter province were funded by other budgetary sources."
In my understanding, when money is yet to be disbursed, it means that it hasn't left the government coffers yet even if a SARO or special allotment release order have been made. The contract for such projects have to be bidded out especially in this case. President Aquino has the authority to rescind on the promise or the allotment if he chooses so. At any rate, it renders his accusation as unnessesary that Pampanga got the lion's share of the calamity fund when in fact it did not. By his power as president, he could have simply disallowed it. End of story.
In my humble opinion, President Aquino could do well in uniting the Filipinos instead of causing division by uttering irresponsible statements.
Perhaps an ordinary Pangasinense will never understand why this hardest hit province was only given P5 million in calamity funds and Pampanga seemed to get the bulk of it.

*****

As a provincial journalist, we welcome President Aquino's mentioning that 50 percent of cases involving extra legal killings in his three-week administration are now on their way to being resolved. But why concentrate on only the murder cases since he assumed the presidency? He was only referring to the possible solution of the cases of mediamen Jose Daguio and Miguel Belen and teacher Francisco Baldomero. What about the others?
President Aquino should do well to stop the culture of impunity that continue to haunt members of the press working in the Philippines. The president should not stop in the killings which happened only during his administration as this could only dampen the spirit of journalists and the families of the victims longing for justice for their slain comrades. We will never forgot those who fell in the line of duty no matter how far flung an area they were slain. As president, Mr. Aquino has all the powers to stop the culture of impunity that pervades in our country. Otherwise is not an option here.

***

If indeed President Aquino is bent on ridding the government of corruption which has long plagued the government, then he should have mentioned with firm resolve the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill which was dismissed in the 14th Congress for lack of quorum. Was it intentional that he faied to mention the FOI bill? If Mr. Aquino is gearing for good government, then he should appeal for the passsage of the bill to congress since this will bring more transparency to the government. Afterall, the public has the right to know matters involving public interest.

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As a whole, President Aquino's SONA was all form and no substance. It was (SHOCK)ingly flawed and (AWE)fully lacking.