The challenge after Aquino’s SONA

President Aquino was statesman-like in this year’s State of the Nation Address, rising above the fray and – to rapturous applause – announcing badly needed major infrastructure projects and stepping up measures against impunity for illegal killings.

There are hopes for legislation on freedom of information, on competition and against dynasties in politics. The next two years will be crucial for the legacy of the liberal administration. 

This year’s presidential State of the Nation Address (SONA) carried much expectation. President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, elected with a landslide in 2010 and the first liberal president of the Philippines in 40 years, has just about two more years to go to secure his legacy, and more importantly to pave the way for a successor who will continue his reforms.

Aquino’s legacy is already impressive. Corruption is down, transparency, accountability and the economy are up. There is a real possibility of peace with the Muslim minority in Mindanao.

But weeks before the SONA he had come under fire from the Supreme Court, which had declared unconstitutional his way of financing infrastructure projects, while avoiding payments to corrupt officials. His first response, rather in character, had been to publicly lash out at the Court. The Court had – rather clumsily – forgotten to include in its verdict the presumption of good faith, and there is no suspicion that the money went anywhere else than to the indicated projects. But the damage was done, and both the president and the Court came out of it badly. Leftist politicians called for the impeachment of the president. Aquino’s ratings nosedived to their lowest level since his election – this sounds worse than it is, because his performance and trust ratings are still around 55%, but that is rather less than the dizzying 70% at which these ratings had been throughout the first 4 years of his presidency.

Those waiting to see more blood in the SONA were disappointed. Aquino composed himself as a statesman. To the chagrin of his detractors, he merely asked the House to adopt a supplementary budget in order to comply with the verdict of the Supreme Court. He announced major infrastructure projects (including airports, in an effort to promote tourism, and roads, in order to combat the traffic gridlock in Metro Manila and to facilitate ‘farm to market transport’), further investments in education, measures to free up the economy (in particular abolishing bureaucratic hindrances, to improve competition in the bidding for public works) and stepping up measures against impunity for illegal killings.

Challenge for LP

Though most Filipinos will remember of this SONA his tearful reference to the legacy of his parents, former President Corazon Aquino and the assassinated Ninoy Aquino, which had half the audience (most prominently his sister, the actress Kris Aquino) in tears, on the policy front the President announced important priority legislation: the Bangsamoro peace agreement for Mindanao, and – some would say overdue – legislation on freedom of information, a competition law and measures allowing for more foreign investments.

At the same time one of his allies, the Speaker of the House, announced his desire to fast-track legislation against dynasties in politics. If these measures indeed see the light of day that would be a remarkable achievement.

This will not be easy.

Three prominent senators are in jail awaiting trial, accused of the fraudulent use of vast amounts of public funds, along with Aquino’s predecessor Gloria Arroyo, who is also still under arrest. How deep the mighty are falling. For many other legislators too, the prospect of being caught for such past misdemeanors is a very realistic one. Obviously they are not keen to see Aquino’s reform plans succeed.

The challenge for the Liberal Party leadership is to achieve very visible successes in these final two years, and to make the continuation of reforms the prime election issue in 2016. – Rappler.com

Jules Maaten is currently the Project Director for the Philippines of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation.