6 Years Of ‘Daang Matuwid’: Key Achievements Of The Aquino Presidency

“Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. (If there’s no corruption, there’s no poverty).” 

These were words uttered by Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III as he was trying to win voters during his presidential campaign for the 2010 elections. 

Aquino, who was urged to run after the death of his mother – former president and democracy icon Corazon “Cory” Aquino – a year earlier, was then elected as the Philippines’ 15th president.

After his term, Aquino’s life was mostly out of the public eye, until his death on Thursday, June 24, from renal disease secondary to diabetes. He was 61. 

Read more: Former President Noynoy Aquino Passes Away

‘KAYO ANG BOSS NIYA’

The following are some of the key events that happened during Aquino’s six-year term:

Philippines wins arbitration case versus China 

During the Aquino administration, the Philippines filed an arbitration case before The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) against China in January 2013 concerning issues in the South China Sea.

Before the case was filed, tensions rose between Manila and Beijing ships in Scarborough Shoal in April 2012.

Since the initiation of the arbitration case, China conducted several massive reclamation projects, wherein submerged reefs were transformed to artificial islands to be used for hosting military structures and equipment. 

China did not participate throughout the trial. 

In July 2016, the PCA ruled that the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, and invalidated China’s “nine-dash” line. China, however, rejected the ruling. 

Pork barrel scam

It was during Aquino’s term when the controversy involving the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam – described by a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigator as “the mother of all scams” – was exposed.

In 2013, NBI agents rescued Benhur Luy from a condominium unit in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. He later became the principal witness to the scam. Luy, along with five others, bared the con game concocted by his second cousin, Janet Lim-Napoles.

Through this racket, scores of ghost projects were being implemented using PDAF funds of participating lawmakers or government agencies, which were then transmitted through Napoles’ non-existent foundations, but the projects have no output.

A total of 28 lawmakers were said to have benefitted from the scam but everyone who were tagged denied participation in the scheme.

Napoles was found guilty of plunder in 2018. A second conviction was handed down for graft in February 2021.

The Supreme Court ruled that the PDAF was unconstitutional in November 2013.

Public-private partnerships

In terms of the country's infrastructure development, Aquino launched in 2010 the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program as one of his administration's centerpiece economic projects. 

PPP is a contractual agreement between the government and private sector geared toward financing, planning, executing, and building infrastructure services and facilities usually provided by the state. 

Three PPP projects were completed before the end of his term in 2016, according to the list posted by the PPP Center on Oct. 31, 2019.

These are the Department of Public Works and Highways' Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway; the 9,296 classrooms constructed under Phase 1 of the Department of Education's PPP for a school infrastructure project; and the Department of Transportation and Communication's automatic fare collection system in train lines of Metro Manila, commonly known as “beep card.” 

Economic growth

The Philippines also enjoyed a stable growth in the economy during Aquino’s six-year term.

When it came to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), experts said it was considered the highest in four decades. On his first year in office in 2010, the country’s GDP was recorded at 7.6%. On his last year, 2016, it was at 6.9%. 

Experts said that due to the growth in GDP during the Aquino administration, the Philippines attracted more investors.

RH Law

After 13 years and four months since the reproductive health bill was filed in Congress, Aquino finally signed it into law on Dec. 21, 2012 despite firm opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. 

The law mandates the state to promote and provide free quality reproductive health care services such as natural and artificial contraceptives, family planning programs, and sex education to the poor.  

Before its passage, the Church consistently aired its collective condemnation of the controversial measure, saying that it "can harm our nation" and "contraception corrupts the soul." 

Anti-Cybercrime Law  

In September 2012, Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which originally aimed to penalize crimes such as cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and cybersquatting.

While this was hailed, critics pointed out that a provision of the law expanded the scope of libel law to cover internet posts. Those who violate this law may be sentenced by up to 12 years in prison for posting defamatory statements on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order in October 2012, stopping the implementation of the law for 120 days. The TRO was later extended in February 2013. 

The high court later upheld the law, including the controversial provision, in February 2014. 

Data privacy

In a bid to protect all forms of personal information in the government and private sector, Aquino signed RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 on Aug. 15, 2012. 

The law orders all government and private institutions to protect citizens' data privacy rights, apply the information security standards in data processing, implement legal criteria in dealing with personal data, and adopt control measures that guarantee the information's availability, integrity, and confidentiality.

Aquino also signed the law to boost the Philippines' investments in the information technology and business process outsourcing industries. 

The measure also paved the way for establishing the National Privacy Commission, an independent body mandated to implement and administer data privacy provisions of the Data Privacy Act. Penalties for unauthorized processing of personal and sensitive information range from three to six years imprisonment and a fine of up to P4 million. 

Corona impeachment

After a grueling five-month proceeding, 20 senators, convening as an impeachment court, found Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona guilty of Article 2 of impeachment complaint against him for failing to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) on May 29, 2012. 

Corona, who served as the 23rd top magistrate of the high court, was appointed by Aquino’s predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on May 12, 2010. Aquino considered this as a midnight appointment, as the Constitution prohibited Arroyo from appointing anyone two months before the end of her term. 

The senators who voted to impeach Corona cited his admission that he had $2.4 million and P80 million in his SALN. 

Corona was the first chief justice in Philippine history to be impeached and convicted.

First female Supreme Court chief justice

Aquino made a historic appointment on Aug. 24, 2012 when he appointed the Philippines' first female chief magistrate, then Supreme Court associate justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Sereno was also the first appointee of Aquino to the high court. She was expected to serve as the country's top judge until 2030, in accordance with the mandatory retirement age of 70 in the judiciary. 

But in 2018, she was ousted by the high tribunal as the SC justices granted the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida on March 5, 2018 against Sereno. Nine of the justices also invalidated her appointment as the 24th chief justice for failure to file SALNs.

Sereno was replaced by former chief justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, who served for only 44 days following her retirement as the head of the judiciary.

Education reform

The country's traditional 10-year basic education cycle underwent a significant change after Aquino signed the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, known as the K-12 program, on May 15, 2013. 

The law, which was the Aquino administration's flagship education reform program, added two more years to the basic education of students in the country. The K-12 program covers kindergarten, six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and the two years of senior high school, which are mandatory for completion before admission to universities or colleges. 

Prior to its full implementation in 2016, some sectors criticized the law, citing the additional costs it could bring to the students and parents. 

In 2018, the SC declared the constitutionality of the K-12 program. It also dismissed the consolidated petitions filed by schools, teachers, professors, and organizations questioning the constitutionality of the enhanced basic education program.

‘Yolanda’ and climate change advocacy

Intense tropical cyclones and seismic events also struck the Philippines under the Aquino administration, which tested the relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts of his government.

The phrase “build back better” became the buzzword for the former president and everyone in public service during his time, particularly when the 7.2-magnitude Bohol earthquake and Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit in 2013.

“We are visited by so many typhoons, and they come here at very unseasonal moments, and they’re very strong. We also have the earthquakes and the volcanoes. Our ability to stop the cycle of destruction and reconstruction, the goal really is to, when we reconstruct, it’s better,” Aquino said in 2014.

Both disasters, which happened in Visayas and within less than a month apart, resulted in a number of casualties and billions worth of infrastructure damage and agriculture losses.

Despite making earnest efforts to warn the public of its dangers and taking all the necessary steps to brace for the incoming storm, nothing prepared the government for the destruction ‘Yolanda’ would cause. Aquino waded through a flood of criticisms in its wake.

The experience evidently made the former president take the issue of climate change more seriously. He sought international collaboration and support on disaster mitigation efforts and led the country in its active participation at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21).

The COP21 summit resulted in the 2016 Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries including the Philippines, whose long-term goal is to keep rising global temperatures below two degrees, hoping it would substantially reduce the impacts of climate change.