President Aquino claimed in her
State of the Nation Address in July 1990 before a joint session of Congress that her administration built a total of 3,365 kilometers of major roads and 18,120 kilometers of feeder roads from 1986 to 1990.
Rebuffing Aquino for dishing out fake news, Enrile said:
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"The kilometers of roads should be easily visible, for the greatest length of the archipelago north to south is 1,851 kilometers only."
"Perhaps, the President and her Cabinet members should tell us where these new roads are. Frankly, I have not seen any in my travels in the countryside. Of course, some could be located inside Hacienda Luisita, as one Commission on Audit report disclosed."
Aquino also claimed that "27,530 more hectares of farmlands were irrigated in 1989, benefiting 18,500 more farmers."
"Where are these irrigated farmlands located?" Enrile asked. "Could these be in Tarlac or some planet like Mars? If this claim is true, why are we still importing rice and corn?"
In 1988 the Aquino administration imported 187,154 metric tons of rice and 172,263 MT of corn—figures that, Enrile said, disproved the truth of what the administration claimed.
The same is true with the Aquino claim that "51,820 water-supply projects" benefited "nearly 7,000,000 more Filipinos." It was all fake news, said Enrile. He asked:
"People in the rural areas often ask me for public funds to provide them with safe drinking water. With 51,820 water-supply projects, each of our 41,000 barangays should have at least one [water supply] project. But where are these water-supply projects?"
"When told about these "water-supply projects," barangay residents reacted in disbelief. Could it be that our barangay folks, ordinary mortals like us, are blind and do not see what the exalted officials of the Aquino administration see?"
One trillion pesos
This is the enormous amount of money spent by the Cory Aquino administration from 1986 to 1990, said Enrile, who was among the very few who unmasked the alleged myth and lies of the Aquino presidency.
"One trillion pesos staggers the imagination," said Enrile in an August 1, 1990, report to the Philippine Senate on the real state of the nation. "Congress has generously made available to the Aquino administration a huge sum of money—almost one trillion pesos—from 1986 to this day."
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The Aquino administration availed itself of P114.5 billion in 1986; P154.9 billion in 1987; P190.7 billion in 1988; P230.4 billion in 1989; and P246.6 billion in 1990, or a total of P937.1 billion. If the budgetary request of P301 billion for 1991 is included, the aggregate amount would have added up to P1.238 trillion.
When distributed among the 60 million Filipinos at that time, adults and children alike, the venerable senator pointed out, each citizen would have received P16,677 or equivalent to half a year’s minimum salary of the average working man.
Enrile said:
"If that sum of money were judiciously used, we would be seeing today immense and dramatic improvement in the quality of our life. And yet, in terms of visible physical and structural infrastructure achievement, the Aquino administration pales in comparison with the regime it replaced."
"If we sum up all the money granted to the Marcos regime from 1966 to 1985, a period of 20 years, as against the four years of the Aquino administration, the total would not come anywhere near the fabulous amount of one trillion pesos.
"One trillion pesos could have created 20 million classrooms for children, complete with teaching aids; constructed 10 million modest homes for the poor; obtained 1 million passenger buses for weary commuters; or established one health center for each of the country’s 41,000 barangays.
"One trillion pesos could have erected one emergency hospital each for 1,600 towns, one general hospital for every congressional district, and one medical complex in every city and province—all of them equipped with the most modern medical facilities rendering free medicines and medical services to 60 million Filipinos.
"One trillion pesos could have irrigated 24 million hectares of rice land, sufficient to produce 2.4 billion cavans of palay per harvest, which would not only reverse the country’s plight as a rice-importing nation, but also place the Philippines as the No 1 rice producer in Southeast Asia."
Finally, Enrile pointed out, "a capital investment of P30,000 per worker means one trillion pesos could have created 33 million jobs, enough to employ the country’s entire labor force, with each worker placed in a full-time and technologically rewarding job."
Senator Enrile concluded:
"The amount could have also built a network of 1 million kilometers of farm-to-market roads."
Sources:
- Cory Aquino herself spread fake news, Cecilio Arillo, July 2, 2018, Business Mirror
- Corazon C. Aquino, Fourth State of the Nation Address, July 23, 1990
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