president noynoy aquino’s July 25, 2011 SONA video

“utak wang-wang” is a winner

coming from the first SONA of aquino where he hit the home run on the use of “wang-wang” which caught everyone’s imagination and yes attention. he made use of that to go into a new term – “utak wang-wang”. this is a winner.

utak wang-wang very much defines what is very wrong in philippine governance. we often hear it from others who say corruption is a way of life in the philippines, that it is endemic. it is this that aquino wants to correct or do – to remove corruption from the minds of filipinos and most specially filipino government officials.

in many ways, corruption is like the use of wang-wang (siren) in the streets by government officials. its use is rooted in the thinking, or in the utak of the government officials that they can abuse power. from abuse of power comes the thinking that they can commit acts of corruption. in fact to many of them, the thinking is that they are entitled to corruption. it is these things in the minds of government official that aquino want to take action against – to remove that kind of thinking.

SWS poll : aquino gets “good” rating on net satisfaction rating, 2QTR 2011

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=TopStory&title=Aquino-administration-maintains-%E2%80%98good%E2%80%99-rating&id=35260

Aquino administration maintains ‘good’ rating

FILIPINOS CONTINUE to hold a favorable view of the Aquino administration’s performance, with the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reporting a satisfaction rating well above those of previous governments and favorable scores in all but one issue.

 June’s “good” net rating of +45 (62% satisfied, 17% dissatisfied and 19% ambivalent), while down a point from March and substantially lower than the record “very good” +64 hit in September and November last year, is still higher than all other scores recorded since 1986, the SWS said.

The best previous rating, it noted, was the “good” +36 notched by the Estrada administration in November 1998.

Respondents said they were also satisfied with the Aquino government’s performance regarding 17 specific issues, with record highs hit in terms of helping migrant Filipinos and pursuing tax evaders. The sole failing mark — although up from March — involved the resolution of the Maguindanao massacre.

Malacañang claimed that the lower scores were “statistically insignificant” and passed the blame regarding the almost two-year-old massacre onto the justice system. A Palace official claimed they were “as unhappy as the people in the manner and pace of the trial”.

wawam is on Twitter! live blogging for Noynoy Aquino’s July 25, 2011 SONA

wawam and the 2010Presidentiables blog will go live on twitter during the president aquino’s 2nd SONA. read the tweets in this blog or follow wawam on twitter.

President Noynoy Aquino’s July 25, 2011 SONA – transcript, poll and comments

State of the Nation Address

of

His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III

President of the Philippines

To the Congress of the Philippines

[Delivered at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives, Batasan Pambansa Complex, Quezon City on July 25, 2011]

[Please check against delivery]

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte; Bise Presidente Jejomar Binay; mga dating Pangulong Fidel Valdez Ramos at Joseph Ejercito Estrada; Chief Justice Renato Corona at ang ating mga kagalang-galang na mahistrado ng Korte Suprema; mga kagalang-galang na kasapi ng diplomatic corps; mga butihing miyembro ng Kamara de Representante at ng Senado; mga Local Government officials; mga miyembro ng ating Gabinete; mga unipormadong kasapi ng militar at kapulisan; mga kapwa ko nagseserbisyo sa taumbayan;

At sa mga minamahal kong kababayan, ang aking butihing mga boss:

Humarap po ako sa inyo noong aking inagurasyon at sinabing: Walang wang-wang sa ating administrasyon. At ngayon, patuloy nating itinitigil ito. Naging hudyat at sagisag po ito ng pagbabago, hindi lamang sa kalsada, kundi pati na rin sa kaisipan sa lipunan.

Sa matagal na panahon, naging simbolo ng pang-aabuso ang wang-wang. Dati, kung makapag-counterflow ang mga opisyal ng pamahalaan, para bang oras lang nila ang mahalaga. Imbes na maglingkod-bayan, para bang sila ang naging hari ng bayan.  Kung maka-asta ang kanilang mga padrino’t alipores, akala mo’y kung sinong maharlika kung humawi ng kalsada; walang pakialam sa mga napipilitang tumabi at napag-iiwanan. Ang mga dapat naglilingkod ang siya pang nang-aapi. Ang panlalamang matapos mangakong maglingkod—iyan po ang utak wang-wang.

Wala silang karapatang gawin ito. Ayon sa batas, tanging ang Presidente, Bise Presidente, Senate President, House Speaker, Chief Justice, at pulis, bumbero, at ambulansya lang ang awtorisadong gumamit ng wangwang para sa kanilang mga opisyal na lakad. Kung sa trapiko nga ay di masunod ang batas, paano pa kaya sa mga bagay na mas malaki ang makukuha, tulad ng sa mga proyektong pinopondohan ng kaban ng bayan?

Kayo po ba gusto ninyong makulong ang lahat ng tiwali? Ako rin. Gusto ba ninyong matanggal ang wang-wang, hindi lamang sa kalsada, kundi sa kaisipang nagdulot ng baluktot na sistema na pagkatagal-tagal na nating pinagtiisan? Ako rin. Gusto po ba ninyong mabigyan ng patas na pagkakataon ang lahat na umasenso? Ako rin.

Narito po ang halimbawa ng resulta ng ating kampanya kontra wang-wang sa sistema. Nitong taong ito, taumbayan na mismo ang nagsabi, nabawasan ang nagugutom sa kanila. Mula 20.5% na self-rated hunger noong Marso, bumaba na ito sa 15.1% nitong Hunyo, katumbas ng isang milyong pamilyang Pilipinong nagugutom dati, pero ngayon ay nakakakain na nang tama kada araw.

president noynoy aquino’s SONA.2, july 25, 2011 – defining or redefining the presidency?

read the pilipino and english transcript of the SONA July 2011 speech here: http://bit.ly/qhL2Fm

watch the video of the SONA here :  http://bit.ly/pEzP7c

presidentiable noynoy aquyino defined his campaign through these 5 words : “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” . and these 5 words got presidentiable noynoy elected. the people believed him and because we have been having years of gloria macapagal arroyo and we have always suspected her of corruption. arroyo was one of the country’s most unpopular president, if not the most unpopular with back to back to back negative performance ratings through the years in performance as president.

noynoy aquino, promising no more corruption and removing it to lead us to progress got him elected.

from the presidential elections, aquino carried that through his first year in office, time and again exposing the newly discovered corruption cases committed by arroyo and government officials under her.

it may not have been intentional on his part, but that is how aquino has defined his first year in office.

on his second year of office, we could be seeing another definition of his administration or he will redefine it.

read the speech here:

read the pilipino and english transcript of the SONA July 2011 speech here: http://bit.ly/qhL2Fm

aquino in his second SONA, has redefined his administration as single mindedly pursuing those who  he said continue to have the “utak wang-wang”.

Kayo po ba gusto ninyong makulong ang lahat ng tiwali? Ako rin. Gusto ba ninyong matanggal ang wang-wang, hindi lamang sa kalsada, kundi sa kaisipang nagdulot ng baluktot na sistema na pagkatagal-tagal na nating pinagtiisan? Ako rin. Gusto po ba ninyong mabigyan ng patas na pagkakataon ang lahat na umasenso? Ako rin.

aquino believes corruption or it’s removal from the fiber of philippine culture in governance needs to be his priority and something he he should succeed in.

we see the value and importance in aquino’s obsession to remove the utak wang-wang in philippine government. the recent weeks have shown us how top government officials during the arroyo administration wantonly and blatantly stole, misused or misappropriated billions upon billions of pesos meant for the people and the service of the people.

May mga nagsasabing pinepersonal ko raw ang paghahabol sa mga tiwali. Totoo po: Personal talaga sa akin ang paggawa ng tama, at ang pagpapanagot sa mga gumagawa ng mali—sino man sila. At hindi lamang dapat ako ang namemersonal sa usaping ito. Personal dapat ito sa ating lahat, dahil bawat Pilipino ay biktima nito.

corruption to aquino is a personal thing and he says it should to be to the rest of us. we should not be forgiving and just let things go because corruption was committed in the past. it is not a matter of let by-gones be by-gones. corruption affects each of us.

aquino did not redefine his presidency. what he did was to restate what he had said during his first SONA and what he said during the presidentiables campaign. in his second SONA, aquino has confirmed with us his obsession with corruption or  its removal  from government.

that is both a good thing and a bad thing.

it is a good thing as we all know philippine history on governance is full of stories of corruption, small to multi-billion types of corruption. the recent string of revelations on corruption during the arroyo admin has shown to us how rampant it was and how much it had cost the country and taxpayers. government officials under the arroyo admin took billions of pesos from whatever source they could lay their hands on.

we have heard of allegations of corruption at the AFP, department of agriculture, the PCSO, PAGCOR, DPWH and of course the BIR and the bureau of customs. aside from officers of these government agencies stealing money, we have also heard of money being used for the election of arroyo and the children of some of the government officials.

corruption being everywhere and in big numbers, making it as a priority or even as an obsession is a good thing.

it is a bad thing as fighting corruption or even removing it is a very lofty goal and it’s impact on the daily lives of pinoys are hard to imagine.

when aquino says he wants to remove utak wang-wang, how do we measure his success at it? do we measure it in terms of the number of times he mentions it in his speeches? or the number of corruption cases revealed by officers of government to the press? or do we measure it in terms of number of cases filed with the ombudsman? what about conviction or the number of people put to jail?

of course the true measure of success in his drive to remove utak wang-wang from governance is if it actually stops and all funds meant for the people are actually spent for the people.  that sounds easy enough but if we are to use as basis arroyo’s admin, we are finding out corruption committed during her term after her term, not during.