MANILA, Philippines — Responding to Malacañang’s broadside that he has yet to prove himself, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III Friday said he could not pretend to “hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil” in the face of unpunished crimes in the government.
Aquino, who has declared he would seek the presidency next year, said he could not turn a blind eye on the unresolved scandals under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration, including the P723-million fertilizer scam, the $503-million North Rail project, and the $329-million NBN-ZTE deal.
“They want me to hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil, but I’m obligated to champion the interests of the people. At the end of the day, the people are my masters,” Aquino said in a phone interview.
“My record speaks for itself. I have called attention to acts and policies detrimental to the people’s interest. None were personal attacks,” he said, adding:
“Since they have suggested that I can’t call on my parents’ legacy to criticize the workings of this administration, I assume their suggestion is for me to be quiet and do nothing. If that is the case, I am sorry, I can’t accommodate them.”
Aquino, the only son of the late former President Corazon Aquino and former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., has promised to make more efficient use of government resources if he wins the presidency in 2010.
Arroyo spokesperson Gary Olivar said on Thursday that Aquino and other aspirants for the presidency should desist from portraying the 2010 elections as a battle between good and evil.
He said they should not run “at the expense” of Ms Arroyo who, he claimed, had “done her best for this country in the last eight years.”
Strongest threat
Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, spokesperson of the Liberal Party (LP) of which Aquino is a member, said Malacañang considered the latter its strongest threat because “Noynoy is the complete opposite of what the administration is doing or stands for.”
Sen. Francis Escudero, himself an aspirant, said reviewing Ms Arroyo’s record was “unavoidable” in the campaign.
“Her government is a benchmark from which we want to make improvements, and the best way to show that is to compare what it is and what it should be, bearing in mind that it should never be personal but issue-based and issue-driven,” Escudero said.
Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said an anti-Arroyo stance was “the minimum requirement for a credible presidential run.”
“All those who are serious in contending for the highest position in government must now make it crystal-clear that they are anti-GMA (anti-Arroyo),” Reyes said in a statement.
“An anti-GMA platform will surely connect with the people,” especially because the 2010 elections will be “the judgement” on Ms Arroyo’s nine-year presidency, he said.
NGO with fictitious name
Aquino said he had reviewed the Commission on Audit (COA) report on the fertilizer scam and was surprised to see that a nongovernmental organization with a “fictitious address” was given a P500,000 allotment in 2004 and a much bigger chunk of P32 million in 2007.
“That’s the reason I’m highlighting these issues. The COA report said the NGO could not be found at its stated address and yet it was even given a bigger amount,” Aquino said.
He added: “They asked the neighbors but they knew nothing of the NGO. I just hope that it was not given another allotment in 2008. Sequels are normally good in movies, but here we have the fertilizer fund scam having a Part 2.
“It’s issues like these that drove us to the opposition. This is what’s making me angry.”
Aquino said the fertilizers could have helped produce bountiful harvests but that because of the irregularities, the country suffered a rice crisis.
“The price of rice rose in 2008, and this was during harvest time. I come from a rice-producing province (Tarlac), and I know that prices should go down during harvest time. But the opposite happened,” he said.
Aquino also mentioned the $503 million allotted for the North Rail project, when a similar rehabilitation work, the South Rail project, cost only $50 million.
“It so happens that this was done under the President’s watch. So who should be called to task?” he said.
As for the National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE Corp., Aquino said Ms Arroyo herself had ordered that the project should be undertaken through a build-operate-transfer scheme, and that there should be no sovereign guarantee for any loan for it.
“But what happened was the exact opposite. In the end, it was the government itself that ended up with the loan,” he said.
Legislative record
Aquino contested the claim that his legislative record was “lackluster,” saying he had authored proposed legislation to re-codify Philippine laws to get rid of overlapping or conflicting provisions.
More importantly, he said, he tried to have Congress set up an oversight committee to look into the unaccounted “intelligence” funds of government agencies.
“They come to Congress and ask for these funds, but we cannot ask how these were spent. We wanted to know if these were used appropriately,” he said, adding that the President’s own intelligence funds had reached P600 million.
Aquino said he had repeatedly filed the resolution for the creation of the committee but that administration allies kept blocking it.
“I filed again and again but they never set a single hearing for it [in the House of Representatives],” he said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, also an LP member, said Aquino’s critics were “extremely threatened” by his “growing popularity.”
“Senator Aquino called for [Ms Arroyo] to resign during the ‘Hello Garci’ scandal. He has never retracted his statements and principles. The same cannot be said of most politicians,” Pangilinan said.
Unassuming
According to Pangilinan, Aquino is not merely “riding on his parents’ legacy” because he had nine years experience in the House and three years in the Senate.
“He has accomplished a lot but was not given enough credit precisely because of his unassuming nature. Now that he is in the limelight, his critics can only throw at him inconsequential things—his image, his mannerisms, his surname,” Pangilinan said.
He said Aquino had authored or backed bills that “safeguard our democracy” and championed public servants’ accountability through the Budget Impoundment Control Act.
“He is better prepared to assume the presidency than his mother was 23 years ago when she led the struggle against the dictatorship. More than years of experience, it is strength of character and fortitude that our nation needs today and we believe that Noynoy has the integrity, the grit and the guts to lead the nation,” Pangilinan said.
Rebuild institutions
Aquino said that despite the brickbats, he was focusing on helping build the movement which he hoped would catapult him to power in 2010.
“We have so many volunteers, different groups, coming forward and wanting to help. We are [deploying] them to the field,” he said.
He reiterated that he was open to coalescing with other opposition parties and that there were still slots in his senatorial slate.
Asked if the slot for his running mate was open to members of other parties—as Makati Mayor and United Opposition president Jejomar Binay had suggested—Aquino said he was already talking with Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
“I should have a running mate who agrees with my position on issues. I can’t have someone marching to a different tune because there is so much to be done in the coming six years,” Aquino said.
“Our system of check and balance has been damaged and this administration keeps on accumulating power and pushing the envelope,” Aquino said, pointing out that the Palace had succeeded in preventing Cabinet officials from testifying at congressional inquiries.
“We have to rebuild our institutions so that whoever comes after will be able to enjoy mature politics,” he said.
Free hand
The LP has given Aquino a free hand in choosing his running mate, said Florencio Abad Jr., the party’s campaign manager.
Abad noted that Aquino had not withdrawn his choice of Roxas, who himself had sacrificed his personal ambition for Aquino to step up to the plate.
“I will defer to Noynoy and Mar’s judgment on this,” Abad, a former education secretary, said in a text message. “If you recall, Noynoy publicly offered the VP slot to Mar. Now we are awaiting Mar’s response to Noy’s offer.”
Binay told the Inquirer that Aquino “should not just think LP [but] should think of being the nation’s candidate.”
Other opposition stalwarts said that in order to unify the opposition, Aquino should cut his ties with the LP and form a multiparty ticket.
Antithesis to political maturity
But Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon said Aquino joined the LP years ago because of its principles and advocacies, and that calls for him to abandon it was uncalled for.
“He is with us not for convenience but as a believer in the party’s principles,” Biazon said. “Those who say that new politics necessitates that Noynoy abandon his party are pulling the country further to a politics of personalities. It’s an antithesis to political maturity. Politics is supposed to be based on party platforms and principles.”
Biazon also said it was natural for other opposition parties to want to take Aquino as their own given that even Malacañang had acknowledged him to be a formidable candidate. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Nikko Dizon
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