Noynoy in the shadows of Ninoy and Cory

noymar2 Born on February 8, 1960, Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III is the only son of Benigno Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino.

Noynoy obtained his primary and secondary education at the Ateneo de Manila University. He graduated AB Economics at the same university. After college, he joined his family in exile in Boston.

In 1983, shortly after the murder of his father, Noynoy had a short tenure as a member of the Philippine Business for Social Progress. From 1985 to 1986, he worked as retail sales supervisor and youth promotions assistant for Nike Philippines and later as an assistant for advertising and promotion of Mondragon Philippines. In 1986, he became the vice president of the family-owned corporation Intra-Strata Assurance Corp.

On August 28, 1987, Noynoy was hit by five bullets in a coup attempt during his mother's presidency staged by military rebels led by Sen. Gregorio Honasan.

From 1986 to 1993, Aquino was vice president and treasurer for Best Security Agency Corporation, a firm owned by his uncle Antolin Oreta. He also went to work for the Central Azucarera de Tarlac in 1993, the sugar refinery owned by the Cojuangco clan.

Political career

In 1998, he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives and won, serving as Congressman of the second district of Tarlac until 2007.

Aquino served on numerous committees as a member of Congress: Public Order and Security, Transportation and Communications, Agriculture, Banks and Financial Intermediaries, Peoples’ Participation, Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Appropriations, Natural Resources, and Trade and Industry committees (11th Congress); Civil, Political and Human Rights, Good Government, Public Order and Security, Inter-Parliamentary Relations and Diplomacy committees (12th Congress); and Banks and Financial Intermediaries, Energy, Export Promotion, Public Order and Safety committees (13th Congress).

Aquino was also deputy speaker from November 8, 2004 to February 21, 2006.

In May 2007, he ran for senator and won, placing sixth in the national elections, according to his profile posted at the Philippine Senate website. At the Senate, he chairs the Committee on Local Government, and is also the vice-chairperson of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Noynoy has not much to boast of when it comes to delivering results. In his three terms as a congressman and one term as a senator, Noynoy only had a handful of bills and resolutions. He authored nine bills, two of which are pending before the House of Representatives, according to a Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) story.

The PCIJ story lists down the other bills he authored pending before various Senate committees:

Government Procurement and Corruption

Senate Bill No. 2160 would introduce an amendment to Republic Act No. 9864, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, which seeks to remove ambiguity so that the act would cover projects such as the National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the Cyber Education (CyberEd) project, and other projects of the scale.

Senate Bill No. 2035 would require contractors to handle the regular maintenance and preservation for public infrastructure after the end of the project

Senate Bill No. 3121 would add Congressional oversight to budget decisions undertaken by the President, including budget rescission, reservation, and deferral

Human rights

Senate Bill No. 2159 or the Superior Responsibility Act of 2008, would adopt the doctrine of "Superior Responsibility" for all military and police personnel, in response to extra-judicial killings, particularly human rights activists and media practitioners

Workers’ rights and benefits

Senate Bill No. 1370 or the Workers Productivity Incentives Act of 2007 would grant annual productivity incentive bonuses to all workers in the private sector amounting to no less than 10% of the company’s net profits before taxes

Senate Bill No. 2036 would amend Republic Act No. 6727, otherwise known as the "Wage Rationalization Act," to increase the penalties for non-compliance of the prescribed increases and adjustments in the wage rates of workers

Presidential appointees

Senate Bill No. 1719 or the Appointee Eligibility Act of 2007, would limit the reappointment of presidential appointees by-passed by the Commission on Appointment, in response to the alleged presidential abuse of appointments.

As chairman of the Committee on Local Government, Noynoy has sponsored six Senate bills, two of which have been passed into law: Republic Act No. 9649, which amended the Charter of General Santos City, and Republic Act No. 9640, which lowered amusement taxes from 30 percent to 10 percent. The rest are pending in Congress.

At the Lower House, he sponsored bills that resulted in the creation of two new legislative districts, in Malolos City and in Agusan del Sur. Other sponsored bills for reapportionments in four other districts (Lapu-Lapu City, Cavite, Camarines Norte, Iligan City) are still pending. He also sponsored House bills concerned with special city and municipal holidays, such as the Cagayan de Oro City Day and the Getage (Bohol) Foundation Day.

He is the current vice-chairman of the Liberal Party. He was previously secretary-general of the party (1999-2002), vice-president of the party’s Luzon formation (2002-2004), and secretary-general of the party (2004-16 March 2006).

When his mother died, Noynoy decided to run as president in the May 2010 elections. Senator Mar Roxas dropped his presidential ambitions for the meantime, making Noynoy the standard bearer of the Liberal Party.

Platforms

Noynoy's campaign focuses on his fight against corruption and transformational leadership, which means:

From a President who tolerates corruption to a President who is the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption;

From a government that merely conjures economic growth statistics that our people know to be unreal to a government that prioritizes jobs that empower the people and provide them with opportunities to rise above poverty;

From relegating education to just one of many concerns to making education the central strategy for investing in our people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness;

From treating health as just another area for political patronage to recognizing the advancement and protection of public health, which includes responsible parenthood, as key measures of good governance; and,

From justice that money and connections can buy to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor.

In an interview, the Liberal Party standard bearer talked about job generation and education as his core programs.

Noynoy said education has to be matched to the job potentials in our country and said that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) should be forecasting the growth areas here and elsewhere in the next four years instead of acting on an educational plan that services the need of yesterday.

He said that the country's growth areas include the business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology (IT) and tourism and these, he said, all have a necessary education component. He said the impact, though, 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.”

As to basic education, Noynoy said the Philippines is one of the last three countries that use the 10-year basic education program, everybody else is in a 12-or higher plane. He deplored the current curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd) that combines primary subjects into one and the use of textbooks with so many errors.

He also said more classrooms should be built. The P20-billion to P40-billion expenses for the construction of new classrooms is a pittance compared to the P283 billion lost yearly to corruption, he added.

Early on, Noynoy proved to be a strong contender for the presidential race. In October last year, he led by a 25-percent margin from his competitor, Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar according to a Pulse Asia survey. He got a 44% preference compared to Villar's 19 percent.

However, come January this year, Noynoy and Villar were declared statistically tied in a survey conducted by Pulse Asia. Aquino registered 37% of voter preferences and Villar got 35%. The survey has a margin of error of plus/minus 2%, which means Aquino's rating may be the same as Villar's.

Noynoy's critics say his only strength lies in the popularity of his parents and of his sister, Kris Aquino-Yap. In his first commercial, for instance, Kris mobilized her colleagues in the industry. But, in most of his other campaign advertisements, he is said to be always in the shadows of Ninoy and Cory.

Controversies left and right

Like other candidates, Noynoy is facing controversies left and right.

His support for the reproductive health (RH) bill was raised by the Catholic hierarchy, compelling him to backtrack on his previous statements.

“I don’t care if the Catholic Church will abandon me because of my support for the ‘reproductive health’ bill. I cannot allow a church-run state. The church teaches me that I will follow my conscience. My conscience tells me that we have an overpopulation problem. I have to address it; we need to control the population. We must ensure full availability of contraceptives,” according to an October 2009 Inquirer story quoting Aquino.

Recently though, at the blogwatch event, Noynoy said he is advocating for responsible parenthood and has refused to issue categorical statements on the use of contraceptives.

More seriously, the Hacienda Luisita and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) continue to haunt his bid for presidency.

Owned by the Cojuangco clan, Hacienda Luisita is a 6,435-hectare plantation estate located in Tarlac province. During the presidency of Corazon Cojuango-Aquino, the Cojuangco clan evaded actual distribution of land and opted for stock distribution option (SDO). Because of this, Aquino's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the centerpiece of her government, was considered a failure.

On November 16, 2004, seven farm workers were killed as the police and military opened fire at the striking workers.

In the aftermath of the massacre, dozens more of workers' supporters were killed, including Iglesia Filipina Independiente Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento and Fr. William Tadena. To this day, no one has been punished for the massacre and for the other related killings.

On December 22, 2005, the government declared with finality that the land in Hacienda Luisita should be distributed to the farm workers. After a few months of preparatory work by Department of Agrarian Reform to implement land distribution, the process came to a standstill when the Supreme Court granted a temporary restraining order in favor of the Cojuangco family on June 14, 2006.

A former DAR official, Jose Santos, said the hacienda belongs to the farm workers and that the Cojuangco clan is legally bound to distribute the 4,000-hectare land to the sugar farm workers of the plantation.

The 4,000 hectares are what is left of the 6,400-hectare plantation estate whose 2,400-ha portion is said to have been earmarked as “homelots” for the HLI’s “shareholders.” In a deal with government funders 46 years ago, Don Jose Cojuangco pledged to distribute the land now occupied by Hacienda Luisita to tenant farmers, Santos said.

At first, Noynoy and his supporters seemed to shrug off the issue of Hacienda Luisita. “Aquino’s interest in HLI is limited to less than 1 percent of the entire shareholdings,” said his spokesman Edwin Lacierda in a letter to the Inquirer.

Lately though, Noynoy announced that he would see to it that the Hacienda Luisita land be distributed to farmers by 2014.

Noynoy, however, said that the only problem is how to transfer the land without passing on the debts that have been incurred. Aquino said that based on his understanding of HLI's current situation, the corporation’s financial obligations surpassed its income, thus incurring debts.

Aquino said the Cojuangcos could have easily availed of the voluntary offer to sell option under the agrarian reform program to get rid of allegations that they intend to retain ownership of the land. But they chose not to do so because they first want to clear HLI’s debts to avoid burdening the farmer-beneficiaries who stand to share the land, he said.

In reaction to Noynoy's statements, Anakpawis Representative Rafael Mariano, also chair of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said: “We heard that from [his] mother before.”

Cory's first policy speech on January 6, 1986, during the snap presidential election, was on the implementation of agrarian reform. Ten days later, on January 16, 1986, Aquino delivered her second major speech in Davao and said, “You will probably ask me: Will I also apply it to my family’s Hacienda Luisita? My answer is yes.”

Mariano said the Hacienda Luisita lands should have been distributed to the farmers long ago and with the voluntary offer to sell scheme, he said the Cojuangcos only want to profit again.

As to the debts, Mariano said these are incurred by the Cojuangcos and should not be a condition for the distribution of the Hacienda.

Related to Hacienda Luisita, another controversy hounding Noynoy is the SCTEX. The allegedly overpriced expressway in Central Luzon traverses Hacienda Luisita.

Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla said the House probe would seek to determine the reason why the price of the SCTEx construction, originally at P15.7 billion, suddenly shot up to P32.8 billion in the end.

Remulla alleged that the government agreed to buy 83 hectares of Luisita land at P100 per square meter, which he claimed was more than 10 times the going rate of P6 to P8 per square meter for similar raw sugar lands in Concepcion and San Miguel, Tarlac.

He further noted that the SCTEX has 12 exit points. “Eleven of the 12 interchange are connected to public roads. Only one exit leads to a private property. That is in Hacienda Luisita.”

The Cavite representative also said that the farmers who own 33.8 percent of Hacienda Luisita Inc. were given dividends of only 50 centavos each.

Noynoy’s allies, however, alleged that the controversy is politically motivated.

For other relevant information about Noynoy Aquino, visit the following sites:

Official Website: www.noynoy.ph

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