A reluctant president who won office in a landslide last year, President Benigno Aquino (above) has never really got out of campaign mode, fixated on pursuing the former administration and talking of major reforms without yet delivering a substantive agenda. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
MANILA - A RELUCTANT president who won office in a landslide last year, President Benigno Aquino has never really got out of campaign mode, fixated on pursuing the former administration and talking of major reforms without yet delivering a substantive agenda.
The danger is that this becomes yet another lost opportunity for the South-east Asian nation, as investors' initial optimism on Aquino fades and his main political strength of high personal support weakens.
The government is looking to raise billions of dollars to upgrade infrastructure around the nation of more than 7,000 islands, and says it will make the country more attractive to foreign investors, but details are yet to be fully explained.
'Aquino never really seems willing to expend any political capital on what he believes in or claims to stand for,' said Scott Harrison, managing director of risk consultancy Pacific Strategies & Assessments.
'Whether this is apathy or just another manifestation of his laziness, aversion to work and the rough-and-tumble of politics remains to be seen,' he said, although he did credit Mr Aquino for instituting some ethics in governance.
'Aquino wanted to do a lot of things, but he has not done anything to carry out these things,' said Earl Parreno, analyst of Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms. 'Now is the time for action, and yet the people has not seen anything concrete from his government. There's a growing public perception that nothing has changed from the past administration to his government.' -- REUTERS
