After Aquino’s first year in office, where goes Tarlac?

TARLAC CITY—There’s no place like home. In the realm of Philippine politics, what goes on in President Benigno Aquino’s home province is a reflection of his performance. So a year into Aquino’s term, where goes Tarlac?

There is no windfall in infrastructure projects in the province like during the term of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. But he has appointed Tarlaqueños to government posts, among them the controversial Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres of the Land Transportation Office and Undersecretary Rico Puno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Aquino’s promise to distribute the Cojuangco family-owned Hacienda Luisita to farmers in his first 100 days did not happen. But he comes home to give his personal touch to issues and concerns as much as he can.

Yellow, his trademark color, is not only for welcome ribbons now, but for tarpaulins plastered around the Tarlac Cathedral rejecting the reproductive health bill which he supports.

And the illegal numbers game “jueteng” continues in Tarlac and elsewhere.

Luisita case

If farmers at Hacienda Luisita belonging to the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) would have their say, Aquino will get a 40-percent rating.

“We’re giving him a very low grade. First, he does not have a clear and concrete program for farmers and land reform. Second, on the issue of Hacienda Luisita, we know he can do something and yet he has not acted on it,” said Lito Bais, Ulwu president.

Bais was referring to the decision of the 2009 Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) that decided to distribute the land to farmers and cancel the stock distribution option (SDO) implemented at the 6,000-hectare sugar estate under Mrs. Aquino in 1988.

Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) sought a temporary restraining order at the high court, which was granted and enforced pending the resolution of a petition by the HLI.

The issue now is whether PARC has jurisdiction or has abused its authority in canceling the SDO and ordering the land distributed to farmers.

Lessons from Cory

“History repeats itself if Mr. Aquino will not do anything to correct this,” Bais said.

But it is perhaps the lessons Aquino learned from his mother that prevents him from pouring infrastructure projects into his home province.

In 1988, President Corazon Aquino, with the help of then Budget Secretary Guillermo Carague, also a Tarlaqueño, brought to Tarlac about P1 billion as National Assistance to Local Government Units.

The funds, made through the provincial government, were the subject of an inquiry by the Senate blue ribbon committee after a group of Tarlaqueños under the Tarlac Anti-Graft Council called its attention to alleged massive corruption in the use of the funds.

‘White elephants’

Cases were filed at the Sandiganbayan against then Governor Mariano Un Ocampo III and others, as recommended by the Senate committee and the Commission on Audit.

The unfinished buildings in what was then called “new territories” by Ocampo’s contractors, became Corazon Aquino’s “white elephants.”

Even as he is careful to avoid the same experience as his mother’s, her son responds quick if need be, such as when a bridge in Mayantoc town collapsed and isolated many villages. He rebuilt it through the presidential bridge program administered by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

For Tarlac City Councilor Amado de Leon, Aquino has yet to have a solid accomplishment for Tarlac.

“[Aquino] is not an executive, he is a legislator so he is still learning the ropes. He’s still honing his managerial skills and executive abilities, so we don’t really expect sweeping changes in his first year in office,” he said.

“But if he wants to help Tarlac, he has to help in infrastructure development. Only the government has the capacity to do that and public spending will help boost economic activities. And he has to do that for his province,” he said.

While De Leon cannot give a high mark for the President, he said “in general terms, he is above average. But he has to learn fast.”