Aquino to higlight achievements in annual address

Manila: President Benigno Aquino is expected to higlight his administration's achievements when he delivers his second state of the nation address on Monday.

"We must remember that President Aquino was elected in 2010 on an anti-corruption platform and his address will detail what he has done to fulfill that promise in the year or so that he has been in office," Valte said in an interview aired over government station dzRB Radyo.

After expounding on what his administration has done, Valte said the next part of Aquino's address will touch on the thrust of his leadership for the year.

Asked by reporters if the public can expect measurable announcements from the president like job generation, poverty reduction and growth target, Valte said the president will report about those issues particularly good governance and accountability.

"The president will provide undisputed facts and figures," she said, adding that apart from the constitutional mandate of the president, the chief executive will talk about the real state of the nation.

Security

National Capital Region Police Office (Ncrpo) Director Alan Purisma said some 7,000 policemen from Metro Manila and nearby provinces will ensure peace when Aquino delivers his address at the Batasan Building in suburban Quezon City.

He said strategic thoroughfares leading to the site of the event will be closed to traffic.

Not much 

Meanwhile, a non-government group said they do not expect much changes in the economic "reforms" under Aquino as it was just a rehash of the policies of past president Gloria Arroyo.

"Minus the drive against corruption, the economic strategy of the Aquino administration is the same as that of its predecessor," according to the Fredom from Debt Coalition (FDC), a national alliance of organisations advocating people-centered sustainable development.

In a statement, the FDC said that the so-called "Aquinomics still follow the same fundamentals of the economic strategy of Arroyo.

FDC said these strategies hinge on international competitiveness as main determinant of economic priorities and giving the private sector the main role in the economy.

Ricardo Reyes FDC, president, said Aquino's Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2011-2016 adopts almost hook, line and sinker the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines' "seven winner industries" as the main priorities for investment and employment growth, citing international competitiveness as the basis.

These industries are: business process outsourcing (BPO), agribusiness, mining, foreign-oriented tourism, manufacturing for exports, creative industries, and infrastructure development.

Aquino's PDP, according to FDC, gives more importance to gaining the confidence of corporate private sector than to address poverty and human development.

"Once again, industrial development to meet domestic needs for food, clothing, shelter, educational materials, medicines and health facilities is left to the backburner. The so-called ‘winner industries' cannot stimulate a real start to full employment," said Reyes.

"Aquinomics continues to concede to the private sector the main role in economic development, leaving to government a facilitative and regulatory role," he said.

He added that the challenge of equity or property reform as a main driver of growth and development cannot be successfully met without a strong role for the State and the development of the social economy, like cooperatives.

"Same policies, same miseries," said Reyes. "Aquino plans to do the same old things. Consequently, he'll get the same old results."