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Watching the presidency
Weekly Summary
October 23-29, 2010

53-member Philippine delegation in Vietnam

Just like in his U.S. trip, President Benigno S. Aquino III said he was still in charge of the government while on a state visit in Vietnam, the Asean Summit, and other meetings abroad from October 26-31.

The Philippine delegation to Vietnam had 53 members including Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Presidential Management Staff director general Julia Abad, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, and Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ramon Carandang.

The Philippine President met Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, Nong Duc Manh. He also witnessed the signing of four bilateral agreements on education, defense, oil spill preparedness and sea search and rescue cooperation.

In the Asean summit, the Aquino III had appointments with other state leaders, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Bayan Secretary general Renato M. Reyes Jr., said the President would be contradicting himself if he strongly calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, a known Myanmar political detainee while the Morong 43 political prisoners are still locked up in Camp Capinpin, Philippines.

“Mr. Aquino can show the way to other ASEAN members by releasing political prisoners in his own country. The case of the Morong 43 has garnered international attention from various rights groups. Now would be a good time for Mr. Aquino to back up his pronouncements on human rights with concrete action,” Reyes said.

President reacts to Daily Tribune

An article from the Daily Tribune quoting Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez that President Benigno S. Aquino III will unlikely complete his term because of his poor management capability and poor legal advice drew the ire of the chief executive.

The chief executive tagged the newspaper as a creation of those who are allied with the past corrupt government.

But The Daily Tribune denied the allegation of the President, saying that it was totally the opposite. The newspaper, Tribune said, is the only newspaper that the former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo failed to take over when it found out that it is publishing stories which are highly critical of the former administration.

On Human Rights and Corruption

Aquino takes credit for country's rank in corruption survey

A survey conducted by Transparency International where the Philippines rank improved was received with approval by President Aquino III saying that he will continue his fight against corruption in the country.

The TI report, however, rated the Philippines as still one of the “highly corrupt” countries. From 139th, the Philippines status improved to 134th place in the survey conducted. Alarmingly, the Philippines is still considered as Southeast Asia's most corrupt country and is at the same level as Kenya, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Timor Leste, Lebanon, Solomon Islands, Mali, Mongolia, Niger, Libya, Iran, Nepal, Yemen, Cambodia, Venezuela, Honduras, Syria, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Benin, Gabon, Indonesia, Kosovo, Kazakhastan, Modova, among others.

 

NZ HR group asks PM to talk to Aquino on Morong 43

Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS), a human rights group based in New Zealand, asked New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to discuss human rights violations and political killing of left wing militants in his meeting with Philippines' President Benigno S. Aquino III in Vietnam.

The group said that to gain credibility and respect from the international community, President Aquino must “clean up human rights mess in his (Aquino’s) own backyard first.” APS recognized the pressure that the Philippines will contribute to Myanmar in upholding the importance of democracy however, it find the situation ironic knowing that the 43 health workers are still jailed in a “supposedly democratic Aquino government.”

Other Issues

Angara: PTC should investigate Code-NGO scam

Sen. Edgardo Angara said that President Benigno S. Aquino III's Philippine Truth Commission should include in its probe the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (Code-NGO) following reports of having benefitted in a scam during the previous administration.

The senator said that the inclusion of the Code-NGO will shun away speculations of sectors saying that the PTC is after specific personalities and has biases over people. Some of the key persons that are reported to be involved in the scam involving Code-NGO, are Arroyo’s former social welfare secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman and Arroyo’s peace adviser Teresita Quintos-Deles, now closely working with Aquino. Soliman is Aquino's Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary and Deles serves as Presidential Adviser on Peace Process.

Code-NGO’s so-called PEACE bonds was an alleged multi-billion scam which will burden the taxpayers with a whopping P35 billion ++, bigger than the initial Ph10 billion value of the project.

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