MANILA, Philippines?House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman did not mince words in rebutting President Benigno Aquino III?s first State of the Nation Address (SONA), which he described as ?a partisan press release.?

Lagman delivered his counter-SONA Tuesday, saying that the House minority had eagerly awaited Mr. Aquino?s address because it wanted to work with the administration, but was disappointed.

He said the minority was hard put to find something to support because Mr. Aquino had mentioned no clear programs.

?Instead of being a blueprint for development and policy direction, the SONA was generally a partisan press release, a complaint sheet, a compendium of motherhood statements and a continuation of campaign rhetoric,? Lagman said, adding:

?Instead of presenting a roadmap of policies and programs, the SONA was a discourse on ?inherited problems? which overwhelm the President and painted an atmosphere of woe with very tentative and deficient solutions.?

Lagman said that while he was aware of the President?s popularity, there was no way he could hold his peace: ?I have been cautioned to go slow on the SONA because President Aquino enjoys a tremendously high approval rating. But when the Emperor wears no clothes, can I honestly tell you that his robe is regal and majestic??

Not electrifying

Lagman said Mr. Aquino was given a bum steer by his Cabinet officials yet had the nerve to ask for their quick confirmation.

?Nakuryente ang Presidente. Despite the fact that his SONA was not electrifying, not realizing that he was given wrong data, false statistics and flawed analyses, he still appealed to Congress that these errant appointees should breeze through the Commission on Appointments. This is shockingly aggravating,? Lagman said.

As for the President?s legislative agenda, he said this was also lacking in details.

Lagman contested the various issues that Mr. Aquino raised in his SONA, but took care to explain that this was to correct mistakes and not to defend the officials of the Arroyo administration.

He took potshots at Mr. Aquino?s actions, including the latter?s perceived interference in the case of detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. He agreed that ex-government officials who violated the law should be prosecuted, but stressed that this should be without interference.

He said the yet to be formed truth commission might encroach on Congress? powers to create commissions and might violate the Constitution?s equal protection clause.

He also said the Chief Executive should take pains not to commit an affront to the office of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, a coequal.

Budget matters

Lagman also noted Mr. Aquino?s lament that only 6.5 percent of the P1.5-trillion budget was left, and said the latter had been grossly misinformed.

He said that according to the Bureau of the Treasury, 48.78 percent of the budget remained unspent.

?The problem in the President?s accounting must have been caused by a lack of understanding of the difference between ?allocation? as covered by a special allotment release order and actual disbursement to pay accrued or matured obligations,? he said.

According to Lagman, Mr. Aquino failed to appreciate the distinct items in the budget: When he inaccurately said that only P100 billion was left, he must have been looking at the capital outlay, and not at the other items, such as the expenditures on personal services and maintenance and other operating expenses.

As for the release of a supposed inordinately large calamity fund for Pampanga, the home province of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Lagman said Mr. Aquino had failed to understand how such a fund was used.

He said a calamity fund covered not just the disasters that occurred in the current year but also the rehabilitation projects for the damage caused by calamities of previous years.

He added that it was misleading to compare allocations for Pampanga with that of Pangasinan because the projects in the latter province were funded by other budgetary sources.

MWSS bonuses

On the supposed exorbitant pay and bonuses of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) board members, Lagman said the salary adjustments had also benefited the rank and file, and that the rates were laid down in the collective bargaining agreement dating back to the 1950s.

Mr. Aquino?s tirade against the National Food Administration?s rice imports was also premature, he said, because the agency had yet to conduct an audit and investigation.

Lagman also criticized Mr. Aquino for what he failed to mention, such as population and reproductive health, the agrarian reform program, his labor agenda, the freedom of information bill, debt service reduction policy, climate change mitigation, and the development of Mindanao and depressed areas.

?On the whole, President Aquino?s first [SONA] was both defective in what it said and deficient in what it failed to say. Its sound has now vanished and its fury dissipated,? Lagman said.

Spokesperson?s job

Arroyo, now the representative of Pampanga?s second district, did not think that Mr. Aquino?s SONA merited her personal reply.

Said her spokesperson Elena Bautista Horn: ?She decided that the issues raised against her could be easily answered by her spokesperson.?

Horn said Arroyo was expected to arrive on Wednesday from Hong Kong, where she accompanied her husband for a medical checkup.

According to Horn, Mr. Aquino was basically fed misleading information by his advisers, who, she said, should have known better to get the advice of career officials in their respective departments before coming out with accusations against his predecessor.

?How can this government walk the straight path when it cannot even get its numbers straight?? Horn said Tuesday in a phone interview.

?When our administration came in in 2001, we had little knowledge on how to read government data so we got help from the people in place. But this government treats all those who worked for the Arroyo government as corrupt, and so they refused to get their advice.?

Money matters

On the claim that only P100 billion was left from the 2010 budget of P1.5 trillion, Horn said Mr. Aquino and his advisers had apparently based the figures on the budget allotment when the proper basis should have been the Bureau of the Treasury report.

?The website of the Bureau of the Treasury showed that only P788.8 billion has been disbursed as of June 30, or 51 percent of this year?s budget,? she said.

A big chunk of the funds went to the salaries of the 1.6 million state employees that were advanced in full by the government, Horn said.

?Our thinking was that since they were getting small salaries, the best thing we can do is not to delay their release,? she said.

On the calamity fund for Pampanga, Horn said the P105 million allocated for a district there had not yet been disbursed because the projects had to be bid out. She said the allotment was made two weeks after May 10, when the election ban expired.

She said Mr. Aquino also failed to note that the MWSS had its own charter and a budget separate from the government.

As for the subsidies to the Metro Railway Transit, Horn said it was the government?s policy to shoulder P2.48 billion in annual losses from the MRT operations in order to keep the fare of 500,000 train commuters at an affordable average rate of P15, a strategy adopted by all state-run railways in the world.

?If the Aquino administration does not agree with this policy, then he can raise the rates to as much as P40,? Horn said. ?We have to show the public that the government is not bankrupt, that the calamity funds are intact, and that the subsidies were well-intentioned.?

Investigate all

Arroyo?s elder son, Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel ?Mikey? Arroyo, focused on the planned truth commission that would investigate corruption scandals and election fraud in the past administration.

In a text message, Mikey Arroyo said the truth commission should also cover the previous administrations starting from Mr. Aquino?s own mother?s term from 1986 to 1992, ?as what has already been suggested by Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales.?

?In the spirit of the constitutional requirements and coequal opportunity, all the past administrations should be investigated on the allegations of anomalies. If they are found to be clean, then they can finally clear their names of the wrong accusations hurled against them. If they are found guilty, then face the consequence,? he said.