On his final State of the Nation Address (SONA), the public can reasonably expect President Benigno Aquino III to lay it all out there, to pull out all the stops so to speak as he presents his overall record of governance and his plans for the last full year of his administration.
The Jan. 25 Mamasapano massacre didn’t bode well for the start of what will be the last full year of Aquino’s presidency.
We dread to think what other failures or “kapalpakan” the President and his people will commit in the remaining months of 2015 and we can’t reasonably expect that it will be their last.
Still, it is his final address and Filipinos are known to be a forgiving and accommodating lot so every president, including his now much-maligned predecessor have been given more leeway to explain what they did and what they hope to achieve in the last few months of their tenure.
When Aquino became president, he established from the get-go that his administration will try to reduce, if not eliminate, any vestiges of corruption in government.
And his presidency didn’t lack for dramatic and significant achievements in this aspect.
His predecessor was stopped from leaving the country so she and her people can face squarely the corruption cases leveled against them.
A chief justice was impeached while three leading senators are now facing trial for alleged massive pork barrel corruption in connivance with a so-called businesswoman.
Yet President Aquino’s defense of the pork barrel, which is blamed as the root cause of corruption in the country, had drawn massive citizens’ protests across the country which only indicates that the war against corruption isn’t going away anytime soon.
Though there are few Cebu officials like Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama who would feel that the President didn’t do much for the city and mayors in the province who feel they are being persecuted by the President’s allies, there is little doubt that the Aquino administration facilitated the approval of programs that will eventually prove beneficial to Cebu residents.
Chief of these is the expanded passenger terminal project of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) that will increase passenger capacity when completed in 2018. It is the first airport project awarded under the public-private partnership program being promoted by his administration.
It was also under Aquino’s presidency that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project finally gained traction.
And though it may have been delayed, cash and material support were given to the earthquake victims and families hit by supertyphoon Yolanda.
As President Aquino takes center stage, Filipinos will have to listen to what he says and hope that he finishes whatever programs he has in the remaining time left to him before he steps down and someone else takes his place.
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