Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Former Iloilo Representative Augusto Syjuco on Tuesday said President Benigno Aquino III seemed to have admitted in his 5th State of the Nation Address (Sona) that his administration has strayed course during his four years of leadership.
“You seemed to fall into the right track when you said ‘in spite of this, my resolve is firm because my primary goal is clear: to return government to its original mandate-to serve the Filipino always,” Syjuco said.
“Here, you unequivocally admitted that you had wrongly strayed the course of your last four years and that you would ‘return the government to its rightful mandate,” he said.
Syjuco, also former head of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) during the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said Aquino exaggerated its accomplishment.
In his speech, Aquino cited the Training for Work Scholarship Program, which managed to produce 146,731 graduates while the rest of the 223,615 still undergoing training. The program got P1.6 billion share from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Syjuco said he is the founder of the Training for Work Scholarship Program and in 2009 they have produced over 1.6 million graduates.
“Your graduates that you brag about now are only less than 13 percent of our graduates on the last year of your previous administration,” Syjuco said.
Syjuco added that the P7,155 that Aquino boasted to have spent for every Tesda beneficiary is high considering that in his time, they only spent P5,000.
He said they only paid the schools and training centers when the scholar trainee successfully passes the Tesda Certification Exam.
“And for this, Mang Noy (President Aquino) blamed me for overspending,” Syjuco said.
Syjuco was also the first to file a petition with the high court against DAP.
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