Summary of Noynoy Aquino's Year One Speech

June 30, 2011 marked the anniversary of his first year in office of President Benigno S. Aquino III. So for those who are interested (like the students who have assignments on this topic), go on and read. Just take note below.

Note: Original speech is in Filipino. I've translated the direct quotes from the speech to the best of my ability. And since it's a summary, I paraphrased it according to how I interpreted it. Just take note while you read this. Thanks!

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A recap of the last year:
Before, we move aside when we hear sirens on the street; our greatest dream was to get a VISA to work abroad; waking up to unexpected floods because there's no warning from PAGASA; people giving up on justice for Maguindanao massacre victims.

Bad news only gets worse. But surprisingly, the economy rose -- locally and globally -- shortly before election, because it was the end of the Arroyo administration and the end of the suffering of Filipinos.

It took a long time to contemplate on whether to run for office or not. In the end, instead of “sorry, I'm frightened, and I want to live longer" I said, "Filipino, I'm with you. We'll straighten the crooked, we'll remove the anomalous, and we'll right the wrong."

The here and now: It's much worse than first imagined.

Example of inherited problem from Arroyo: National Food Authority (NFA):

• 1971 to 2000: the NFA debt was at 12.9 billion pesos;
• Arroyo's first year in office: debt rose to 18 billion pesos;
• Arroyo's last year in office: debt rose further to 177 billion pesos (~1000% increase).

President Arroyo vs President Aquino:
"I won't waste time to argue with them. I just thank Mrs. Arroyo for admitting that she is the opposite of me. At last, we have agreed on something."

("Hindi na po ako magsasayang ng panahon para makipagbangayan sa kanila. Nagpapasalamat na lamang po ako sa pag-amin ni Ginang Arroyo na kabaliktaran niya ako. Sa wakas, nagkasundo rin po tayo.")

Let these people decide instead:

• 21,800 families of police and soldiers who will have decent housing before end of the year;
• the poor who registered in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT); 4 days from now, he will personally see to the signing in of the 2,000,000 th beneficiary of CCT;
• 240,000 farmers using the more than 2,000 km farm-to-market roads built within just one year.

On Agriculture:
Before last year: we needed 1.3M metric tons of crops, but imported 2M metric tons; now, we only imported 660,000 metric tons. This is brought about by:

• concentrating funds on irrigation where it's most efficient;
• expanded the use of good kind of seeds; and
• extended the upland rice farming.

The above resulted in 15% increase in harvest last year, the highest harvest in history of dry season cropping.

The promise of secretary Procy Alcala coming true; that before 2013, there's no need to import rice.


Reforms vs Tax Increase:
Because of the revamp of the system, we increased the funds without increasing taxes: 12 million pesos goes:

• Pantawid Pasada (public transportation);
• wages of 10,000 nurses assigned in the remote provices;
• buying of ships to patrol our coastlines; and others.

We get: housing, rice, security, wages, roads, life-savers (salbabida) for countrymen.

"We didn't dig up Yamashita's treasure to achieve this. We just went after the corrupt in the government, corrected the expenses, and starightened the crooked system."

("Hindi naman po natin nahukay ang kayamanan ni Yamashita para maipatupad ang mga ito. Hinabol lang po natin ang mga tiwali sa gobyerno, itinama natin ang pag-gugol ng pera, at itinuwid natin ang mga baluktot sa sistema.")

The Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC) Issue
Got a 5-page memo detailing the corruption which includes:

• bogus positions/roles with wages of half a million pesos per month;
• cellphone plans of these positions for personal use;
• selling of office equipment for personal gain;
• bogus "fixed allowances" which are no less than than 100,000 pesos per month.

Fixing this reduced monthly expenses from 22 million down to 11 million pesos per month

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Issue

• overbudget in TV ads showing faces of politicians;
• yet had no budget to pay their 3 billion peso debt to government hospitals;
• as a result, the hospitals don't accept guarantees from PCSO.

Closing remarks:
To those who want to hastily reap fruits of sowed reforms: we need cooperation of everyone to reach our goals.

We should avoid quick but ineffective solutions in favor of the carefully laid out reforms. We are bridiging the gap between "sana" (maybe?) and "kaya" (can do!) and the nation is participating to reach our desires.

Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. Right governance direct benefits our countrymen, especially the poor. The medicine for the poor, the roads, and every opportunity to have a decent livelihood -- all of it is brought about by the integrity and compassion of the government.

We've come a long way in just one year. Just think of what we can achieve in the next five years. Filipinos and the whole world is witness to the results of the straight and righteous path. Are we going to retreat now?

The corrupt are still trying to shake the my conviction that pushed me to heed your call, and that brought about the my victory in the last election. I said before: you [Filipinos] are my strenght, the strength that is the source of our success now, and the imminent fulfillment of our dreams. This will never change: kayo pa rin ang boss ko. (You are still my boss.)

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For the original transcript of his speech, check here.