Blogwatch live online interview with Senator Noynoy Aquino
Feb. 6, 2010, 6-9 pm
Venue: Vibal Publishing House, G. Araneta Ave. Q.C.
Host: Welcome to our seventh edition of BlogWatch. We actually call it coffee chat but at this hour we call it happy hour with the presidential candidate.
Intro of bloggers:
I am Sonny Santos . I blog at Santos.ph. I blog about management and leadership stuff.
I’m Cocoy from Filipino Voices.
I’m Rochelle Chua, I blog at Rochelle C Chua. It’s a personal blog.
I’m Peter Baltazar from Points of C__ and I’m the managing director.
I’m Ivee from the Filipino Chronicles. Basically I write news and features.
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Wyatt Belmonte. I’m a food blogger and my blog is wyattbelmonte.blogspot.com.
Merck, a sports writer and usually blog about sports and political stuffs.
I’m Gus Vibao. I’m the executive director of LUAU Foundation which is very much committed to young online Pinoys and my advocacy is online literacy.
I’m Christine Mandigma. I’m the editorial director of the Philippine Online Chronicles. Blogwatch is part of this website. Our aims is to create news and content for a new breed of Filipino readers wired and very much committed to contemporary issues.
I’m Rhoda Palina. I blog at timeandtime.Prepis.com. it’s a social and family oriented blog.
Im Bin Lacoma. I have a personal blog with this spot and one of my advocacies is to give employment to some people through online jobs.
I’m Vince Golangco and my blog is called wheninmanila.com. It’s a video blog where I have a travel show or a political satire show where we make fun of politicians.
I’m Jay Salazar. I blog with Filipino Voices and I have my own personal blog.
I’m Jester. I blog at jesterinexile.blogspot.com. it’s supposed to be a personal blog but there I get mad at politicians.
I blog under the name of Sparks and I am a contributor of filipinovoices.com. it’s a group blog and we do social and political commentary.
My name is Mark Remorin. I’m from the Marocharim experiment…
I’m Fritz of fritzify.com. I’m a personal and lifestyle blogger.
Pocholo Gonzales from Creative Voices and also Voice of the Youth Network.
Brian Ong. Brianong.blogspot and I’m a senior in public administration in UP.
I’m Jane Uy Matiao. I have a personal blog at….
…(other bloggers also introduce themselves to Senator Aquino.)
Host: So as we can see we are very varied here. we are as young as 21 and young at heart at 66. The format here is we are composed of 3 groups: Blogwatch bloggers, Vibal group, the Philippine Online Chronicles which hosts BlogWatch.ph and we have two guest bloggers Sparks and Jay. We ask one question and one follow-up. Approximately we are 20 bloggers who..you could actually time it at five minutes. We can accommodate everyone. We’ll include the online audience if they have questions. I’ll be the first to start.
Q&A:
This came about from the powers of the presidency at the AIM and my questions is: which departments will you prioritize and who will you appoint to these departments? If you have no names yet, what qualifications are you looking at when appointing the heads of the departments. Please include the role of Senator Roxas in your administration.
Aquino: The very first thing that I will do. One of the very first things has to be addressing the revenue side of the fiscal issues noh so the Department of Finance has to be a priority deparment and that is not the only priority. DSWD is another priority. The DOJ is a personal preference on my part. The fourth part of my platform has to deal with judicial reform.
In our country we have something like only 18 percent conviction rate to all cases that are filed anoh. I wanna make that very very clear: 18 %. And that is so far from what America always has which is about 85 % and which Japan has at 95%. In our country there is no certainty of punishment when you committed a crime.
For instance in the fertilizer scam, it took them 4 years before they started investigating Mr. Joc-joc Bolante and it takes 6 years to adjudicate cases. There was this lawyer I was in the plane with while I was going to Davao, he was saying that if you have a client who owes money to somebody, that he would advise him not to pay because it takes 20 years litigate the same, yung collection.
The strict portion of our agenda has a lot to do with the efficiency of the DOJ, the prosecutorial services and of course we would have to deal with the judiciary, in that we will not want to get engaged in the swifter application of justice in our country.
Now as to names, I am not really comfortable in naming names because we have supporters at this point in time who have been harrassed already for joining our campaign. We don’t want to increase the bulls eyes on the people’s __.
Qualifications?
Aquino: Well they have to have a proven track record as far as the field is concerned. But also we will be welcoming newer talent who have not been given opportunities to do so but have demonstrated abilities that are commensurate to the positions that we will be offering them.
At the same time, of course, there has to be a large measure of trust and confidence ano to their ability to perform, meaning advancing the agenda that we wish to advance in the country.
What about Senator Roxas?
Aquino: Senator Roxas and I have had discussions when..(namatay ang audio sa speaker) ..we have plenty of time to discuss that. now he will be in charge of several clusters of departments ano and he has competencies as far as economics and the financial side is concerned but I leave it up to him. We call it division of labor. So we will be focusing on a set of line agencies and I will focus on another set. Because at the end of the day dib a 6 years ..(namatay ang audio sa speaker)..
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Q: (inaudible)
Aquino: We have done that already for wage earners. Well let me just check. But there is already a surcharge.. Why do we have lower taxes? But that would not be in the 1st year of this__. We have to address the budget deficit.
During President Ramos’s time we are made to understand that you reach a tax efficiency ratio compared to GDP of around 18 %. Presently we have that 12-13 % level. Increasing it even to the 15 % level will give us a 150 billion in additional income without raising taxes. Our position is do not raise taxes while you are not able to collect the taxes that are already there in our loss.
Now, where do you want to lower tax? We believe private sector will respond faster to changes in the economic conditions that will now respond to faster growth of the economy because it will be very.. (namatay ang audio sa speaker)…
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…But it has not been delineated. So when people say save our forests, that is just an abstraction. It does not specify protect these forests stretching from this boundary to that boundary will be preserved. There is 8 % primary forest cover that is still remaining.
What do we want to fix? ..but having said that, I think the slogan and the theme that America has proposed encapsulates most of our ___ with regards to the environment. We just have to involve also the idea of jobs in the mining industry versus mining experience at Marinduque with Marcopper. There has to be a balance between the needs of the guardian and to preserve the environment. At present her is Diwalwal. Diwalwal has produced so much gold. But at the same time, it has been Wild West territory. It has really destroyed the environment. That has to be addressed also. So more than anything, DENR also would have to be a proactive department as opposed to the __ sector is..…
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Sabi po ninyo sa inyong bagong political ad sa TV ay di ako magnanakaw at marami na rin po ang naniniwala na kayo ay sincere sa sinabi ninyo based na rin sa inyong track record as congressman and senator. Kaya lang ang iniisip rin ng iba, nagkakaroon sila ng doubt na oo nga sabihin natin si Noynoy hindi nagnanakaw pero paano yung mga taong nakapaligid sa kanya mamaya pag naging presidente na siya? Syempre aminin natin na ito ay pulitika at may mga supporters kayo na hindi natin maaalis yung utang na loob na bahagi ng kultura nating mga Pilipino. Ano po ang inyong komentaryo tungkol dito?
Aquino: Di ko naman maaangkin na magiging perfect yung aming sistema. Dahil ito may tataya mula 4,000 hanggang 25,000 ang posisyon na kailangan naming punuin. Nagbilang nga ako noong isang araw, sabi ko meron ba akong 25,000 friends na I’ve known from way way back and acquaintances, associates na kaya kong sabihin without batting an eyelash na sigurado ako sa lahat dito. I don’t think anyone of us here will have 25,000 friends na kaya niyang i-certify di ba.
But having said that, yung…I’ll use an analogy noh. Nasa Bicol area kami meron ping billboard ng mga politico dun sa area. Ang nakakataka po roon, isang billboard, ito ang grupo ng mga magkakasamang politico, susunod na billboard iba ho ang magkakasama sa billboard nila. So yung taga-doon na kasamahan naming sabi ‘tignan mo ang samahan nila. Ang samahan nila ay hindi based sa prinsipyo, based sa pangangailangan kaya papalit-palit ano.
Kami po, ang bago namin isama sa aming grupo, ako po ay may barkada na mula grade school na barkada ko hanggang ngayon na nagmumula po kami..hindi kami kailangang magparami ng barkada, hindi po interes, pero yung buong-buo ang loob naming sa mga kabarkadang ito na ang totoong kaibigan, mangyari na ang mangyari. So pareho rin ho sa political alliances, base ho sa prinsipyo e. Kung hindi susunod sa direksyon na gusto nating puntahan, magiging balakid, magiging pabigat, bakit naman ho ako magdadagdag pa ng sakit ng ulo ko?
So pag yung taas hindi gumagawa ng kalokohan, meron siyang moral suasion pwera pa sa legal authority para habulin lahat ng hindi susunod sa parehong landas. Having said that, malabo naman po yung mga dating pronouncements na we will eliminate corruption kasi mali ho yung analysis e. Puro batas-batas tapos ikulong natin lahat itong taong ito. Kailangan naman gawin natin ang demand sa people in government, gawin nating reasonable.
So what does that mean ano? Yung presidente po ng republika, before salary standardization law 3, make something like 50,000 pesos gross. Pag may lumapit ho nagpa-dialysis, kalahati na ho siguro yun. Pag magpapakasal kayo, sa eskwelahan ang anak ninyo, kung may anak kayo, e mahina-hina na ho siguro ang 50,000 para tuition ng isa sa magandang eskwela natin.
So we are saying wag na ang carrot and stick, stick is judicial reforms. You have the DOJ going and implementing all of our laws with regards to anti-corruption which is supposedly very very good. The carrot side naman is given compensation that will give them some measure of insulation from temptation.
In Singapore , yung public sector employees makes something like 80 % of their private sector of their private sector counterparts. Dumouble nap o ang income.
So ulitin ko po ano, yung mga nakapaligid pos a akin, I will wait that demand. But at the same time having made that demand on them, yung hibndi ko gagawin wag ninyong gawin. Bigay naman natin ng enough compensation to meet the needs. Gusto na nga mag-sacrifice, wag naman nating gawin impossible vision ano. Don’t forget ano, cabinet level secretaries, how much do they make in a private sector? Be it in direct wages, in benefits, stock options, what have you.
Pagpasok sa gobyerno pareho kami salary standard with just 35,000 gross. So reasonable ho ba doon presidente ng republika, 1.5 trillion budget ibibigay niya ng singkwenta mil tapos magpapa-aral ng anak na ang tution 75,000. See? The difference is dati puro batas, gagawa ng bagong batas etcetera. Iimplement natin. Yun ang trabaho ng chief executive pero bigyan mo naman ng pagkakataon na kung gustong maging matino, natutugunan ang mga pangangailangan niya.
Q from Vince Golangco from Wheninmanila: I’m sure you’re aware that you’re surrounded by internet geeks andwhatnots. I wanna ask you a techie question. With the social media in the Philippines , since corruption is one of the big problems here, I wonder how you think we could use the internet and digital media to give transparency to the government? And also on the second part of the question with regards to the media, what are your plans, should you win the presidency, on implementing the better use of technologies with the internet to help propel this country forward?
Aquino: Well I am not much of a techie. Noong panahon namin, computers were an elective. Ginagamit pa nila punch cards. I don’t know if you know what punch cards are. At yung kapatid ko ang gumagamit noon. Now having said that ano, how can we use that for better governance? Obviously, yung speed, yung knowledge ano, the ability to transmit it very quickly across the globe, is such a powerful tool.
We have a road that’s being constructed. Kita mo na yung aggregates doon ay mali , andami ng bato, bakal, etcetera mali , yung size mali , di naparating ninyo sa amin. You know, one of the things that we would want to do is ano e..when President Magsaysay was president he had a line, I believe something like ‘isang telegrama lang, aksyunan na ang problema mo.’ And they really complied with that.
But you know, a telegram takes time to get delivered, they have time to solve the problem. Sabi nga kaya ba natin yan kung SMS? SMS sabihin mo nang 1 % of the Filipino people mag-SMS sa Malacañang, that’s about 1 million text on the first cycle. Di ba? Sasagutin mo, mag-re-research ka, magpa-pile up, may backlog na mangyayari. Is that the best way? Is it email? Etcetera. Will you use one of these?
Hindi ko lang maipangako na we’ll respond to you within 24 hours na may sagot na samga tanong mo especially pa gang volume mo na isa 1 million hits, 10 million hits. And how many members of the office of the President are there? Maski nay un lang ang trabaho, maski na 10,000 na katao, daunting yung number.
But I’ll go back ano, use judiciously ang gandang mechanism para magkaroon ng exchange of information, ma-involve yung citizenry in governance. Having said that, I think you would all agree nasa infancy. May point na they used twice na ang gandang tool. Meron din naman inaabuso.
For instance, freedom of speech. Yung dating example sa atin, you have the right to speak your mind. But when you’re in a movie house and you say fire when there is not, that is not allowed. When your rights impede on the rights of others, that is not allowed. So I don’t want to impose censorship. I don’t wanna say that somebody has this particular standard pero yun yung idea ng being responsible. Hindi yung alam mo na talagang kalokohan, talagang kawalanghiyaan, walang basehan, tapos ifo-float mo pa at guguluhin mo yung ating dialog dun sa democratic space na nakaka-deter dun sa pag-abot natin sa dapat puntahan.
I was reading up on some information about tobacco control, it seems that the national government has some serious problems with enforcing Tobacco Control to comply with the United Nations so with the standards set by the World Health Organization. Do you believe that government, in taking, the lead Tobacco Controll should impose prohibitively high taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products? And if not, what is the solution to our problem?
Aquino: Well it’s actually during ni-raise yung sin taxes. I think government should, in terms of health issue. I’m a smoker. I don’t want to be plastic. But at the same time, I try not to, shall we say, annoy anybody else by my habit. Now, if you’re gonna ask me when I’m gonna give it up I won’t give a specific date. I’m under a lot of pressure in this campaign and I will not add another pressure that might make me explode in an inappropriate time.
My only issue with sin taxes is that they seem to hit the people who can least afford to pay taxes. They’re regressive taxes e hinbdi ba. Sino ba ang iinom ng alak hanggang makalimutan niya na ang problema niya? Huwag na kakain basta at the end of the day may pinakamalalakas na tama diyan para matulog na siya.
Tobacco siguro almost the same thing ano. No matter how much you smoke, there’s a limit to it. But having said that nga, there are health issues and the Dept. of Health should be at the forefront of advocacies and education. And then you have so many laws that are already extant ano. You go to Davao , they do total ban indoor if it’s a public establishment tapos sila they go even as far as regulating smoking, for instance, outdoors. There are designated smoking areas outdoors in Davao .
So at the end of the day, it is the community that decides also will we empower the LGUs na if that is what there community wants, they have an effective program. Then we will devolve more and more resources to them.
But to be honest with you, will that be one of my priorities? Sabi ko kasi first top for me is job generation e, then education and health, then judicial reform.
What specific measures will you have in place such that you would have an impact sa mga poor para maramdaman nila na may pagbabago, para masabi nila na mas mabuti ang buhay namin ngayon kesa dati so that when they wake up in the morning excited sila magtrabaho and face the new day unlike ngayon na talagang very kawawang-kawawa naman sila?
Aquino: Yung impact sa poor..for instance, number one, meron tayong shortage sa classrooms. What is the number, between 20,000 to 40,000. You define a classroom as one class using it for 8 hours a day. Ang ginawa pong solution ng current administration is shifting. Shifting can be 2 classes or 3 classes pag minalas ka.
The Philippines is already 1 of the last 3 countries that uses the 10-year basic education program. Everybody else is in a 12 or a higher plane. So what is that in actuality? The student studies English, in this current DepEd order, sinama yung science, health. Then they’re given a textbook that has so many errors. In effect, the student does not have an ability or parang it’s very difficult for a student to learn under those conditions.
So why did I bring that up? Yung one of the ideas that we are talking with in terms of providing jobs, dahil job generation nga ang number 1, is it would take us somewhere between 20 billion to 40 billion in pesos to construct all of the classrooms that we need. Parang daunting yung amount dib a until you compare it to the 283 billion that is lost yearly. Biglang naging pittance yung 20 billion na kailangan.
So, ang fifth..well, sa job generation kasi one of the activities kasi is parang pump priming using employment via infrastructure projects. We’ve already issued that as a policy statement. Ibig sabihin, kung yung infrastructure project hindi naman makaka-impact negatively by requiring more and more labor to be used in it then we will do it.
So how does it impact education? In each barangay that needs you provid e the jobs based on constructing this classrooms and in return yung disposable income translates into a higher purchasing power, a higher disposable income sa mga sari-sari store o supermarket, palengke, etcetera, which generates, again, more inducing investments down the line.
We figure about 8 times yung VAT ng kontrartista, cement dealer, will bring us backthe 30-40 billion that we’ll spend on it but in the process na-grow na natin yung economy. Again, like __ sa program with the new dean of ___ programs as a means of pump priming. That is one I give it to you to try with. Why don’t we do that?
Growth areas natin, BPO, IT, tourism, they all have a necessary education component. Tapos yung impact will not be felt immediately. It will take reforming the basic education program from getting 10-12 years, will take about 10 years in all honesty. But obviously if we don’t do it now, the children who are studying now, yung grades 1 to 2 ang pinakamalaking drop out, given that situation 3 subject in 1 class period, mali yung libro, guaranteed magda-drop out. And when that person starts to look for work, puro minimum wage lang ang kayang gawin, cannot go into It, BPOs, even to tourism, very limited. Pero yun ang growth potentials natin.
So education has to be matched also to the job potentials in our country. Even something like matching, kunyari nursing, tayo parati humahabol kung saan marami. Dati occupational physical therapy. Lahat nandun. Noong na-saturate ang market lahat pumunta naman ng nursing. Pagkatapos gumastos ng about 500,000 sa average, wala nang nursing jobs.
Dapat yung DOLE should be forecasting saan ba ang growth areas here and elsewhere four years later. Hindi yung we’ll act on an educational plan that services the need of yesterday. Pointless yun.
Hacienda Luisita. A lotof people think that 1 reason CARP failed is because of the SDO or stock distribution option. It is also seen that SDO has been able to keep farmers out of their land. The beneficiaries seem to be your own family and in the end farmers still receive barely anything from what they have brought into Hacienda Luisita. Do you think this is right? And what will you do different as president that would give the balance of power and justice towards the farmers?
Aquino: Ma’am, there are so many assertions you made and if I may go point by point I think we will consume the entire time ano. Yung first idea dun, my critics would tell us parang kapit tuko kami dun sa land. So there has to be economic value for us to be kapit tuko at the land. I think you will agree. If you were to sell the land, we go back, tanggalin na natin SDO, and I think that’s still an option for my family at this point in time. 70 % of that belongs… I’m sorry. If we go back to before SDO, all of it belongs to us.
We have this means by whereby there is voluntary offer to sell. Ibebenta namin sa gobyerno even at a hundred pesos per square meter, it’s about 4500 hectares in question. It’s 10 square meters per hectare. That’s about 4.5 billion pesos that will go into our pockets. By selling it, bahala na kayo, ayaw na naming diyan. Ok. That will take care of the debt that we hold. We meaning we as a family and we as stockholders sa farmer beneficiaries.
So kung pera lang po ang pinag-uusapan dito, it will be ___ us to say na voluntary offer to sell na lang, ayos pa ako politically. Wala nang binabatikos sa aking issue. Butt if we do that noh, these farmer beneficiaries who number (sic) 10,000, will be the ones dividing 4,500 hectares. Hindo ho ata doable yung less than 1 hectare for a single individual to live on.
On top of that i-a-amortize yung payment for the land over x number of years. So ibe-burden pa natin itong farmer beneficiary who used to be a farm worker only. So our parents, our grandparents also told us hindi naman sila iba sa amin e. Ulitin ko ha, economically, politically, it is wise for my family to say ‘o voluntary offer to sell, ba-bye.’ Pero pag ginawa naming dun yung konsensya aspect na kumbaga bahala na kayo sa buhay ninyo at parang nakikita naming na napakahirap ng iiwan stress yun sa kanila, nakaka-guilty po yun.
So what have I done? I’ve asked my extended family to find ways and means whereby we can transfer the assets free of debt. And then if I am president, syempre number 1, I have to divest. Number 2, I want agrarian reform kasi to get to the next level. If you remember, yung CARP is supposed to be a 10-year program. It has already been a 20-year program. It has been extended for another 5-year program.
From transfer ownership of the land should have a finite quantity. Alam mo kung ilang lupa ang kailangang ilipat. Alam mo kung kanino ililipat. Ima-match mo yung 2. may beginning, may end. Ang hinahabol ko makapunta na tayo dun sa end ng distribution. Bakit? Dahil lahat ng resources na ginugugol, all of the funds that are being utilized for the program can go into agriculture extension services, can go to irrigation, can go into real farm to market roads, can go into so many things that will allow each farmer beneficiary to be able to maximize this asset that is transferred to them.
But yun na nga ano, people who have been criticizing us have not actually been affording any solution. Merely throwing the land to them, parang kunyari, o these our assets our stocks. I own by the way nga pala about .0004 % of HLI. So I have to convince the .996 % of everything and that includes the 10,000 farmer beneficiaries. But anyway, schemes, transfer the land to them debt free. I have to get all the 10,000 farmer beneficiaries to agree on that particular scheme.
Then afterwards, the governm,ent can help whatever scheme that they agreed to. But again, throw them the land, bahala na kayo sa buhay nyo, wala yung credit, wala yung extension at kulang yung lupa. And assuming pare-parehong productivity ng lupa, that is not the case e. There is very fecund plan of land. There is land that is fertile after what you do. So konti na nga yung lupa mo, lalabas pa noon na para bang ibibigay sa yung lupa na walang kayang tumubo dun, maliban damo. Paano naging mas magandang sitwasyon sa kanila yan?
We keep on saying farmer beneficiaries and they were workers e. they were never any tenants eversince we got there. From 1958 to 2004, hindi man natin sasabihin na sobrang gandang pamumuhay, mukhang maganda na rin dahil kamukha e pag umuuwi po ako dun is to get back to where they were. Ayaw na rin po ng pamilya naming na dagdag ng dagdag ng utang sa amin na di naman makita yun potential. So yung transfer na wag na ilipat ang burden sa kanila. Wag gawing mission impossible para magkaroon sila ng buhay. Yun lang po ang hinahabol naming dun.
