Remora Senator

It cannot be denied that compared to the previous administration, the current admin has been showing relentless decisiveness and political will, not only in facing today’s issues but also in addressing concerns that were left hanging by P-Noy’s regime. I believe that some people might even argue as to whether the previous admin has done anything at all. Looking back, the lack of action of the PNoy administration on a lot of national issues gave birth to the term “NoyNoying,” which means “doing nothing.”

Now let’s take a look at some of the things that they only hoped to do but remained figments of their imagination – if not for President Duterte’s subsequent actions.

Freedom of Information (FOI). If the past administration did anything, that was to rub it in our faces that we, the Filipino people, are their “boss.” They made it look like they are all for transparency and accountability by supporting the Freedom of Information bill. However, after six years in power, nothing ever came into fruition. Whatever happened to FOI under the P-Noy administration? Let me repeat, his administration ran for six years with FOI supposedly on their priority list.

On the other hand, President Duterte immediately signed the Executive Order implementing Freedom of Information in the executive branch. While this does not cover other branches of government, it is still a huge step forward in contrast to what was done during the previous admin, which was practically nada. To top it off, it didn’t take years for the president to sign the order, just 23 days.

Free Tuition Law. In more or less a year, President Duterte signed the Free Tuition bill into law, regardless of the strong opposition of his economic advisers. This likewise shows that we have a president who has the political will to do what is best for Filipinos despite the challenges that will come his way. Unfortunately, it seems like there is an Epalitiko who keeps on grabbing the credit for this feat. Sure, Sen. Bam Aquino, owns the credit as you wish, but let me ask: what happened to the Free Tuition Bill during the previous admin’s time? If they want to take credit for this achievement, I believe they must first answer as to why it was not passed back then, when they were the administration party? If they were truly fighting for the Free Tuition Bill, then P-Noy should have already signed it into a law while he was still in power.

Pushing for faster internet in the Philippines. The latest buzz these days is that President Duterte is keen to have a third telco player to address the utterly slow internet speed in the country. It appears however, that Senator Bam is joining the bandwagon to once again take credit for this idea. Back in May 2016, President Duterte already warned the major telco players to improve their internet services or else he’ll open the country to foreign internet service providers. Now the President is starting to act on his warning, after seeing that the current telcos didn’t seem to take his word seriously. My question is, why is Senator Bam always appearing on the good things the government is doing for this country? Is it because he was totally sincere in fighting for the Free Tuition Bill or that he wholeheartedly supports the idea of opening the Philippines to foreign telco players? If he truly wants these things fulfilled, why are we only hearing from him just now? Where was he when he had the opportunity to spearhead these aspirations? Why is he making a noise now when it is someone else’s political will that’s making all of these come to life?

What irritates me the most is that the previous administration had the power to achieve these goals before. If they truly wanted to serve the Filipino people, they could have passed the Free Tuition Bill, act on the FOI bill, and open the Philippines to other telco players.

But they did nothing.

And now that the current administration has acted on the same concerns, we are also seeing a senator who’s all over the place, ready to grab the credit like all of these were his ideas. He and the previous administration, which he was a big part of, and its party he continues to embrace, did nothing but sit on these things. This is the very reason I take offense whenever they try to tag their names and faces in the achievements and plans of the government. I take heed at what Sass Sasot said in a post: “When an Aquino is in power, he is noynoying. When he’s not, he is anNoying.”