Aquino to bare anomalies in SONA

MANILA, Philippines � In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Benigno Aquino III will be revealing �a minimum of five anomalies� the previous administration committed that he said will shock the public.

Speaking to reporters after the change-of-command ceremonies at the Philippine Army Friday, Aquino said the anomalies that he and his Cabinet have uncovered will be �shocking� and �without sense, without rhyme and without reason, but which we have to fix.�

�Pati kayo na sanay na sanay na, ma-sha-shock pa rin kayo (Even you who are used to this, will still be shocked),� he said.

Giving a glimpse of his speech, Aquino said one of the irregularities discovered by Budget Secretary Florencio �Butch� Abad was the alleged misuse of calamity funds, which benefitted a particular district not hit by a typhoon.

Aquino said the calamity funds have already been �depleted.�

�It seems there was a particular district that benefitted and that is not affected by typhoon Basyang or even typhoons Ondoy or Pepeng. But 20% of the [calamity] funds allegedly went�to that district,� Aquino said.

He declined to provide more details as it would pre-empt his speech.

Asked what the overall message of his first speech would be, Aquino said, �As I said in the beginning, you have to ascertain what the problems are. The problems will point to certain solutions that would be best to solve all of these problems you have identified.�

�In the reverse side of that, we are very, very hopeful of the developments with regards to fulfilling the wants and needs of our state,� he added.

Aquino said his SONA speech is still in the process of re-writing, noting that he and his speech writers were already on the fifth rewrite. The first draft, he said, was 24 pages long, single-spaced and with a font size of 16 points.

�I said this is too much and I have to be very, very careful of what I say because it might create the wrong impression,� he added.

Source: Inquirer