President Aquino off-track from campaign promises, priorities

I was rather disturbed by the speed with which the House of Representatives impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona. It was obviously done with the prodding of the Executive branch—no surprises there—but the apparent display of executive muscle is not what worries me most. The thing I find really alarming is what it says about the other “priorities” that President Aquino enumerated before he was swept into power a year and a half ago.

During his campaign for the presidency, Mr. Aquino said the passage of a Reproductive Health/Responsible Parenthood law would be a key measure of good governance. But until now, different versions of the RH bill continue to languish in both houses of Congress, and it is highly unlikely that any of those versions will be passed into law anytime soon.

The Freedom of Information bill has fared even worse—touted as a central issue in Mr. Aquino’s 2010 presidential campaign, it has since been killed in Congress, and even vilified by the President himself. “It might be misused,” he said at a gathering of Southeast Asian business leaders earlier this year.

The hasty impeachment of Chief Justice Corona showed us how easy it is for the Aquino administration to get its priorities addressed. Apparently, a wink and a nudge from the Executive branch are all it takes to get something done. But what does that really say about the rest of his campaign promises? That the passage of the RH and FOI bills were never part of President Aquino’s priorities in the first place? That the “tuwid na daan” is all about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and nothing more? No, Mr. President, that doesn’t sound “tuwid” to me at all.

—KIT UNDUG,

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