Beyond cavil

President Aquino prefaced his State of the Nation Address (Sona) with a reference to his most visible accomplishment during his first year: doing away with the use of the police siren, or  the wangwang, especially by his own presidential convoy, so as to set a good example and restrain the general tendency of some sectors of the public toward self-entitlement.

But the President did his own wangwang, figuratively speaking, in trumpeting his achievements. “We have fought against the wangwang, and our efforts have yielded results,” he said, pointing to the drop in self-rated hunger, the rise in business confidence, the upgrade in credit ratings by international investment houses, and the rush of investments in the energy sector.

In so many words the President said good governance and efficient administration can be fostered through transparency and accountability. This was the gist of his second Sona. To some extent, everything was a re-iteration or an elaboration of his first address last year, and we would grant him that achievement: staying focused on his anti-corruption platform, and keeping on track, at least as far as articulating his vision of good, clean government is concerned.

To be sure, the President’s performance must be evaluated according to what he promised to do. The Inquirer’s two-part report on Monday and Tuesday on whether he has indeed fulfilled his promises gives him largely a passing grade while of course, lamenting the black-eye caused by the government’s poor handling of the Luneta hostage crisis and his proclivity to shield his friends from embarrassing controversies. Now as then, a president can be rated by the company he keeps, and President Aquino has not been immune from charges that he keeps the wrong company and enjoys it. This is a warning sign for his presidency.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of his administration on its first year is house-cleaning. He has revamped or abolished agencies, put government contracts under review, held off the salaries and emoluments showered by officials of government corporations upon themselves, and filed cases against alleged grafters. But he himself would be the first to admit he has to go beyond house-cleaning.

Granted that he has been able to fulfill some of his promises, the President must show greater resolve to consolidate the gains his administration claims to have made. For example, he has promised to strengthen the anti-corruption drive to free up more resources for social services and poverty alleviation programs. But he did not provide any broad details of these social service programs, save for saying that the Conditional Cash Transfer program has benefited the poor.

Similarly, he couldn’t provide any blueprint for making the tax system more equitable, except for making snide remarks about how the “self-employed” such as businessmen and physicians are paying ludicrously small taxes that go against the popular impression of their profits and income. The army of salaried men and women who prop up the tax system expects a more definite vision from the President to check tax iniquity.

Similarly, the President pledged to provide adequate compensation for the victims of martial law, but did not provide details. For someone whose father was martyred during the Marcos dictatorship and whose mother led the People Power revolt against the strongman, he seems to be taking his own  sweet time giving justice to the victims of martial law. Worse, he has nothing on his plate on the issue.

Details likewise seem to fail the President as far as his economic program is concerned. While transparency and accountability should underpin all development efforts, it would have been gratifying had the President clearly outlined his economic vision. Former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno articulated what was on the mind of administration watchers when he lamented that there “was no grand plan.” “He keeps going back to his anti-corruption agenda,” Diokno said. “He was talking of things he wants to do in a small way, like in graft and corruption. But where does he want to carry us from here until 2016?”

In sum the President’s second Sona appeared underwhelming and nearly bereft of concrete vision. The good news is that the President still has another year to craft that vision. Sincere like his mother and still enjoying generally warm public support, he must roll up his sleeves and buckle down to work. The public expect more substantial progress on many fronts, beyond wangwang, beyond cavil.