Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Monday, July 31, 2023 said the real state of the Philippines is “worrisome.”
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel Jr. (Senate PRIB Photo)
Pimentel, in his privilege speech, countered the gains that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. brandished in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, July 24, saying the real state of the country is actually “pitiful” and “worrisome.”
But he congratulated the President “for seriously discharging his constitutional duty to deliver his SONA: “He obviously gave it his best.’’
However, Pimentel painted a country burdened by high prices and even the “cost of living crisis” felt by Filipinos today.
He also cited several issues to be tackled such as economy, the need to upgrade the military, corruption and territory disputes with China.
Pimentel lamented that the President did not mention the country’s debt problem.
The Senate minority leader said the country’s national debt is now at P14.1-trillion, which “does not even include the GOCC (government-owned and -controlled corporations) and LGU (local government units) debts.”
“Some of our learned big thinkers say that we don’t need to worry about our debt because our economy can outgrow our debt. However, it is senseless to talk about outgrowing our debt if we cannot even show that our so-called growing economy has enabled us to bring down the principal of our debt. The fact that our national debt has doubled in just six years clearly indicates that we have not succeeded in decreasing the principal sum of our debt,” Pimentel pointed out.
“Mamamatay nalang tayo nagbabayad pa rin tayo ng utang, tapos meron pa tayong ipapamana sa sunod na henerasyon para sila naman ang sumunod sa parehong ikot ng buhay (We will soon die but the next generation will continue to pay our debt),” he added.
‘’Corruption has definitely contributed to the ballooning of our debt,’’ he pointed out.
He cited a 2022 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International report which rates countries based on the perceived level of public sector corruption and the Philippines ranked 116th out of 180 countries, scoring only 33 out of 100 which is way below the global average of 43.
“We need this Government to show that it is committed to the fight against corruption. We need to hear the orders being issued. We need to know who are assigned to do the crackdown,” he stressed.
Pimentel expressed hopes that the President would soon announce his game plan in fighting the worsening corruption.
“This Government’s preoccupation with logos, or what I call ‘logo- vernance,’ is a manifestation of wasteful spending and incompetence, if not corruption. Spending millions of pesos for slogans and logos is indicative of misplaced priorities,” he pointed out.
During his speech, Pimentel also called on the government to put a stop to the practice of giving Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) to government agencies which are not even engaged in national security and public order or law enforcement work.
He cited the whopping P10-billion in Filipino taxpayers’ money to the CIF of various government offices in the 2023 national budget.
“I hope the President and his cabinet can intervene to stop these manifestations of incompetence, if not corruption, among others,” he added.
Pimentel also lamented that there was no mention about the need to increase the daily wages of workers despite the ever-increasing cost of living in the Philippines.
“Since our Regional Wage Boards have been slow to react to realities on the ground, we need to legislate a new national minimum wage which will ensure that all workers receive a just living wage,” he pointed out.
While the President mentioned the Maharlika Investment Fund or the MIF in passing, Pimentel said it is good that he did not tout it to be his administration’s greatest achievement in its first year.