Churchmen score Aquino: Fail, good …

Some Catholic bishops and an ecumenical group have given President Benigno Aquino III a failing grade, describing his first year in office as lackluster.

The President has yet to see the totality of Philippine society “in order to spell out problems and priority needs toward integral development,” Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said Thursday.

“For me, I am still waiting for Mr. Aquino to be a true public servant,” Iñiguez told reporters Thursday.

Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo rated the President’s performance as “good” but “not very good or excellent.” He said the President still “needs to study and work hard” to better serve the country.

Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles called Mr. Aquino’s first year in office “a failure,” pointing out that the President himself did not know where the straight path (tuwid na daan) truly led.

No solutions

The Promotion of Church People’s Response on Thursday said the Aquino administration was embracing old and unfit economic, political and foreign policies that were only adding to the suffering of Filipinos, particularly the poor.

The ecumenical group identified these policies as the public-private partnership scheme, the conditional cash transfer program, and the continued implementation of the PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement and Balikatan military exercises, among others.

These programs indicate that Mr. Aquino’s presidency is similar to the previous administration, said Nardy Sabino, secretary general of the organization of Church people dedicated to the promotion of justice, peace and human rights.

“The teaching of the Church on righteousness has been a reminder to every government, that’s why it has welcomed President Aquino’s core value to the righteous path,” Sabino said. “But the Aquino government failed to provide basic solutions to the decades-old problem of Philippine society.”

He said instead of focusing on the people’s basic demands—increase in basic wages, land reform, protection of human rights and provision of necessary social services—“his government embraces the old and unfit economic, political and foreign policies that added to the suffering of our poor brothers and sisters.”

Prosecute Arroyo

But what disappointed the group most was Mr. Aquino’s “negligence” in prosecuting allegations of corruption against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies.

Sabino said Mr. Aquino’s waning popularity rating strongly indicated the growing alienation of those who supported him during his election campaign last year.

“It is very obvious that the people who voted [for] or supported Mr. Aquino during the campaign period especially among the Church sector are awakening [because] the President is journeying against the people’s hope for change,” he said.