A call for change.

 

PRESIDENT BENIGNO C. Aquino III, in his first State of the Nation Address, yesterday called for an end to wasteful spending and greater accountability to address the fiscal problems left by the previous administration.

First cited were the fat allowances and bonuses -- reaching up to P2.5 million per year -- for each board director at the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

"We cannot remove them for their positions quickly because they are the among the midnight appointees of [former] President [Gloria Macapagal] Arroyo. But if they have any shame left, they should voluntarily relinquish their positions," Mr. Aquino said.

Also tagged was the P200 billion in debts incurred by National Power Corp. (Napocor) when the government forced the state-owned firm to sell electricity at a loss in 2001-2004 to prevent power rate hikes.

"What the public thought they saved from electricity, we are now paying for using public coffers. Not only are we paying for the cost of electricity, we are also paying the interest arising from the debt," Mr. Aquino said

Next to be identified were the losing Metro Rail Transit 3 after the government failed to fulfill its guarantee that the operator -- MRT Development Corp. -- would be able to recoup its investment, and over-purchases of rice by the National Food Authority (NFA) in 2007 and 2004 that were a factor in the agency’s debt ballooning to P177 billion.

MWSS, Napocor, and MRT Development officials were not immediately available for comment, but Reynaldo T. Berroya, general manager of state-owned Metro Rail Transit Authority, said that buying back MRT 3 "led to positive results. For one, the commuters would not have to shoulder higher price of train fare... [which] would lead to a domino effect of workers asking for salary increase."

MWSS officer-in-charge Macra A. Cruz, meanwhile, said in a television interview that the agency’s benefits package was allowed by law. In another television interview, former Agriculture Secretary and now Bohol Rep. Arthur C. Yap said Mr. Aquino may have been "unfair" as the rice importation approval process involved many officials.

In a jab at Mrs. Arroyo, Mr. Aquino noted that the province of Pampanga -- the second district of which the former president will represent in Congress -- was given P108 million, of which P105 million "went to only one district." Of the P2-billion calamity fund for the year, P1.4 billion was said to have been already spent even before the rainy season had set in.

To address fund mismanagement, Mr. Aquino raised a zero-budgeting policy, ending the traditional practice of reenacting the previous year’s budget "without plugging the loopholes." The 2011 budget, he said, will undergo this process upon the outlay’s submission to Congress next month.

Citing the first half deficit of P196.7 billion, and claiming that only P100 billion of the P1.54-trillion 2010 budget remained to be spent for the next six months, Mr. Aquino said the country’s basic needs -- education, infrastructure, health -- could be addressed through public-private partnerships given renewed interest and confidence in the Philippines.

He noted an offer to rent the Navy headquarters along Roxas Blvd. in Manila that would yield of $100 million, claiming such expressions of interest mean "we will meet our needs without spending, and we will also earn".

Mr. Aquino said part of growth effort -- of which job creation "is foremost on our agenda" -- is the streamlining of processes such as cutting the time it takes to register business names to 15 minutes from four to eight hours and shortening the passage of build-operate-transfer projects to six months from a year to as much as a decade. He also called on local government units to join in the streamlining effort.