All my brags are packed

OUR LEADER Benigno Simeon, aka BS, speaking to some news people who were apparently all women, last week said he had already started packing—even with still some 80 days left in his six-year term.

Would you say that, aside from getting ready to leave Malacañang, he also intended to render a final report to his “boss?”

Come to think of it, this winding-up Aquino (Part II) administration  enjoyed the accident of fabulous timing, meaning, just pure luck.

Because of troubles in the financial markets abroad starting in 2008, as a result of the financial meltdown in the United States, major central banks eased their monetary policies.

So, it became effortless, not to mention very cheap, for the Philippine government to borrow money here and abroad during the term of our leader, BS.

That could hardly be said about the four other administrations in the post-Edsa era, all of which grappled with the serious lack of government funding, and burdensome foreign and domestic debt payments.

In comparison, while he was already starting to pack his stuff and all, our leader, BS, nevertheless would leave behind to the future generations of Filipinos some P6 trillion in national debt—just like that.

When he started in 2010, or only six years ago, the national debt stood at about P2 trillion, which meant this administration, despite the lack of infrastructure projects, managed to triple the national debt.

And what could we show for the P4 trillion in additional national debt that would have to be paid for by the 100 million Filipinos to the last man, woman and child?

Okay—we would perhaps take pride in that lowly barangay bridge in Lulutan in Isabela and the five-hour long blackout at the mismanaged 40-year-old international airport in Metro Manila.

Look, boss, in terms of infrastructure, the WEF competitiveness index put the Philippines at No. 106 out of some 140 countries—that kind of infrastructure.

Yet, the national debt increased in the past six years at the fastest pace ever, even including the time of the demonized martial rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, simply because this administration got all-out support from Congress.

Based on official figures, from 2011 to 2016, the Aquino (Part II) administration got more than P13 trillion in budgetary allocation from Congress.

That was trillion with a “t,” mind you, the number 13 plus 12 zeroes!

To think, by the time our leader, BS, would leave Malacañang to become citizen Noynoy once again, this administration would also have posted about P1 trillion in total government “underspending” in the past six years.

In other words, it was not enough that the Aquino (Part II) administration added P4 trillion to the national debt, but it would also leave behind about one-fourth of the debt as idle yet borrowed funds.

To think, on interest payments alone, the Aquino administration would have to spend roughly P50 billion a month.

Again—what could we show of all that P13-trillion six-year budget and P4 trillion in additional national debt?

Let us take a quick look at the six-year “2011-2016 Philippine Development Plan,” which was crafted by the Aquino (Part II) government at the start of the term of our leader, BS, supposedly laying down its economic goals.

Promising to create a “competitive and sustainable” farm sector, the plan for instance bragged that agriculture would grow at a much faster rate than ever before.

We all know that, under the Aquino (Part II) administration, agriculture grew by an average of 1.6 percent a year, adjudged as the lowest growth rate among all the five post-Edsa administrations.

And did the administration spend heavily on farm infrastructure, since we only had only 1.5 million of irrigated farms, although the World Bank figured that the country could irrigate some 10 million hectares?

Unfortunately irrigation systems were never a priority in this administration.

The plan also promised rice “self sufficiency” by 2016, supposedly as part of our food security.

And that was the reason why the Aquino (Part II) administration decided to import more than one million tons of rice from Vietnam last year.

Not only that, the development plan boasted about unprecedented growth in in poultry and piggery production in six years of the administration.

Now, according to industry figures, in 2010 at the start of the Aquino (Part II) administration, the inventory of backyard hog-raising farms stood at more than 9.5 million heads.

By the end of 2015, the inventory dropped to an alarming 8 million heads, and still going down, while the population continued to increase.

For the drop in production in poultry and piggery sectors, the industry blamed unabated smuggling, which the private sector claimed to have more than doubled under the bayawak system at the BOC under this administration.

Moreover, the plan promised that the length of permanent bridges in the country would be doubled,  meaning hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers of new bridges would be constructed.

And where were those?

To improve the quality of life of the people in Metro Manila, the plan also bragged that the travel time in the metropolis would be reduced from 2.17 minutes per kilometer in 2010 to 1.57 minutes per km in 2016.

And so by 2016, based on the plan, the travel time along the whole stretch of the 24-km Edsa would only be a little more than 15 minutes—and they were not kidding.

How long would it take again to travel the 24-km thoroughfare—more than three hours?

Among the other brags of this administration, specified in the 16-point economic agenda of our leader, BS, released in 2010, was this reassuring line:

“From government policies influenced by well-connected private interests to a leadership that executes all the laws of the land with impartiality and decisiveness.”

And that was probably the basis of this administration’s decision to give away the P32-billion LRT-1 deal to the consortium of the Ayala group, Metro Pacific group of Manuel V. Pangilinan and foreign investment company Mcquarie—for free.

The economic agenda also pointed this out:

“From government antipoverty programs that instill a dole-out mentality to well-considered programs that build capacity and create opportunity among the poor and the marginalized in the country.”

There—the problem of dole-out!

But how much did the Aquino (Part II) administration again devote to the CCT, the conditional cash transfer program that the administration changed to 4-Ps, or the Pantawid sa Pamilyang Pilipino Program—more than P400 billion?

That the program actually reduced the poverty incidence in the country, was the biggest delusion that the our leader BS revealed in his lecture, or speech, to Pope Francis last year.