‘After three years under President Aquino’s regime, its approval rating plunged along with the fight against crime, the eradication of graft and corruption, the promotion of foreign investments, et cetera.’

AFTER three years and one month, what is the real state of the nation under the regime of President Noynoy Aquino? As gathered from the latest objective, independent, unsolicited surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the Swiss Institution IMD, the Transparency International (TI) and the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), the net satisfaction rating of his administration declined along with the promotion of foreign investments, the fight against crime, the eradication of graft and corruption, et cetera.

President Aquino may have claimed “major achievements” under his watch in his annual State of the Nation Address but this has been belied by the latest SWS survey that showed his administration’s satisfaction rating net has gone down 4% to a +53%, the fight against crime declined from +26% to +17%, the eradication of graft and corruption went down to +19%, the promotion of foreign investments also went from +35% to +33%. The same dissatisfaction with the Aquino administration’s performance was voiced as well by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), the PCCI, ECOP, Ibon, and various labor organizations.

Most significant of all, the true state of corruption caught the eyes of Swiss institution MD, Transparency International (TI) and the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB). The Swiss IMD reported in its annual survey said the perceived level of corruption in government remained a major hurdle for the country’s ability to compete in the global stage. It cited the TI’s report on corruption that the Philippines ranked 105th out of 174 countries of the world.

The extent of corruption in this country averaged 4.4 points out of a scale of five, which is the extreme corruption level, according to the survey report of the Berlin-based TI. It showed that Filipinos perceived the police as the most corrupt institution, followed closely by public officials in the executive, the judiciary and the legislature departments, and political parties.

The TI noted the growing reluctance of those surveyed to report cases of corruption due to apathy and fear. It reported that 44% of the respondents said they wouldn’t report a corruption case because “it wouldn’t make a difference anyway,” while 38% said they would not do so because they were “afraid of the consequences.” Some respondents said they were willing to report incidences of corrupt practices, but 52 % said they would go to the news media, while only 21% said they would report directly to the institutions involved.

The Ti findings also revealed that a majority of the Filipino respondents believed that the government is entirely and firmly in the hands of a few oligarchs, a few rich individuals and big business. And they also believed that official anti-corruption efforts had deteriorated since the start of the world financial and economic crisis in 2008 to this very day.

What we have just seen is that the scourge of corruption remains a severe problem in the country, despite President Aquino’s vaunted “Tuwid na Daan” (Straight Path), which, alas, is turning out to be a crooked road.

This then is the real and true state of the nation today.

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President Aquino has a penchant of signing what many observers consider brazen “unlawful laws”, such as the Cyber Law, the Executive Order 79, which contradicts the Mining Act of 1975, and the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA). Well, he recently signed another such law, Republic Act 10574, allowing foreigners to own up to 60 % of rural banks.

Bernie V. Lopez of the Australian-based Eastwind Journals has bluntly asked, “Who authored the law, a foreign firm, a rural banker, who has friends upstairs?” That RA 10574, he revealed, included CARP lands for foreclosure, contradicting the CARP law, and the National Patrimony provision of the 1987 Constitution, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1997.

He said that the “ramifications of this new law are mind-boggling. Such foreclosed agricultural lands can now be controlled by foreigners; they can grab lands on the pretext of technicality on defaults on loan payments; they can acquire contiguous lands on a large scale and covert precious farmlands that give subsistence to marginalized farmers; and conversion of such agricultural lands into other uses will diminish agricultural productivity and affect our food security.” Since our national economy is 70% agricultural, he pointed out, “foreigners can either control that or worsen it by converting these into industrial zones. And there is also blatant conflict of interest if these foreign rural bank owners also own big multinationals coming in, to the detriment of Filipino and agricultural interests.”

“Industrialization may be a welcome development as long as it is truly developmental, not just a haven for tax shelter and cheap labor for foreign firms, then a trickle down for local investors,” Lopez concluded. “But if it displaces agriculture on a large scale, on which 70% of the population depends on, then the benefit shifts from the majority poor to the minority rich and the foreigners. Industrialization must not dislodge agriculture but complement it. Otherwise, it will enhance the rich-poor gap.”

In other words, the control of banks and agricultural lands by the few rich and foreigners under that “unlawful law” has dangerous implications!

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Quote of the Day: “The voice of the people is very much in need of a megaphone!” – Anonymous Observer

Thought of the Day: “Corruption is not a matter of men or classes or education or character of any sort; it is a matter of pressure. Wherever the pressure is brought to bear, society and government cave in. The problem, then, is one of dealing with the pressure, of discovering and dealing with the cause or the sources of the pressure to buy and corrupt.” – Lincoln Steffens

Source: Malaya Business Insight(www.malaya.com.ph); News; 23 July 2013