Anti-corruption On June 29, 2010, Aquino announced the formation of a
truth commission that will investigate various issues including corruption allegations against outgoing President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo; Aquino named former
Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. to head the commission. However, on July 26, 2011, the Supreme Court struck down the commission because it "violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution". During his inaugural address, Aquino created the no
wang-wang policy, strengthening the implementation of Presidential Decree No. 96 issued in 1973 by President
Ferdinand Marcos that regulated the use of sirens, horns and other similar devices only to specific motor vehicles such as those used by the President and Vice President. Aquino maintained he would not use
wang-wang despite being stuck in traffic. He also traded the official black presidential
Mercedes Benz S-Guard limousine for a white
Toyota Land Cruiser 200. Aquino ordered a "thorough investigation" into the incident, and would wait until it is completed before deciding whether anyone should lose his or her job. Aquino declared that the media may have worsened the situation by giving the gunman "a bird's-eye view of the entire situation". On August 24, 2010, Aquino signed Proclamation No. 23, declaring August 25, 2010, as a national day of mourning, instructing all public institutions nationwide and all Philippine embassies and consulates overseas to lower the
Philippine flag at
half-mast, in honor of the eight
Hong Kong residents who died in the
Manila hostage crisis. On August 27, 2010, at a press conference in Malacañang, Aquino apologized to those offended when he was caught on television apparently smiling while being interviewed at the crime scene hours after the
Manila hostage crisis. Aquino said; On September 3, 2010, Aquino took responsibility for everything that happened during the
Manila hostage crisis. Aquino had direct supervision of the
Philippine National Police, since Aquino had asked
Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Jesse Robredo to address other concerns, such as coming up with a comprehensive plan on delivering social services to and relocating informal settlers in coordination with the local governments.
Disaster resilience on August 8, 2012. In July 2010, Aquino criticized the
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) for failing to predict and to warn the residents of
Metro Manila that
Typhoon Basyang would ravage Metro Manila. In August that year, Aquino announced the removal of
Prisco Nilo as administrator of PAGASA. PAGASA was directly under
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary for Research and Development (R&D) Graciano Yumul. In July 2012, Aquino launched
a disaster risk reduction and management program. In November 2015, he signed a law providing funds to modernize the PAGASA.
Education During
his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), Aquino announced his intention to continue the implementation of the
K–12 education in the Philippines that started on May 20, 2008 during the
administration of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, with process spanned for 9 years from 2008 to June 5, 2017 from Arroyo to
successor Rodrigo Duterte. On April 24, 2012, the K–12 became effective starting on School Year (SY) 2012-2013 and to maintain continuity, Aquino signed the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or K-12 Law in May 2013, and the program was carried out by Secretary of Education Bro.
Armin Luistro FSC.
Energy To provide electricity to far-flung areas of the country, in September 2011, the Aquino administration launched the
Sitio Electrification Program, which aimed to energize 32,441
sitios nationwide. By March 2016, three months before Aquino's term of office ended, a total of 32,688 sitios were energized. Aquino signed an executive order on mining that expanded the "no-go" zones for mining in the country to include 78 tourism sites, and farms, marine sanctuaries, and island ecosystems; the order also limited
small scale mining to areas designated as
Minahang Bayan, banned small-scale miners from using mercury to process ores, and issued a
moratorium on new mining contracts as Congress legislates a
revenue sharing scheme.
Health Despite the possibility of
excommunication from the
Catholic Church, Aquino upheld his position on distributing
contraceptives to Filipino couples. In January 2013, Aquino signed the
Reproductive Health Bill which funds contraceptives for poor individuals; the law has been challenged in the Philippine Supreme Court. The Aquino administration, through health secretary
Janette Garin, launched a school-based
dengue immunization program in April 2016. About one million Grade 4 pupils from three regions began to be immunized with
Sanofi Pasteur's CYD-TDV (
Dengvaxia), the world's first dengue vaccine, less than four months after the Philippines approved the sale of the vaccine.
A controversy emerged in 2017 after the vaccine was found to increase the risk of disease severity for some people who had received it.
Infrastructure ,
Norzagaray, Bulacan on May 26, 2016. Throughout his presidency, Aquino promoted a larger private sector role in infrastructure development in the Philippines to hasten the financing, construction and operation of key infrastructure projects such as expressways, airports, and railways that would spur economic activity and growth. On September 9, 2010, Aquino signed an executive order reorganizing the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Center into the Public-Private Partnership Center, which was tasked to facilitate, coordinate and monitor all public-private partnership (PPP) projects, build-operate-transfer scheme projects, and private sector participation projects. The
Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway was the first PPP project approved by the Aquino administration, with Ayala Corporation winning the concession to build and operate the P2.2 billion four-kilometer toll road on December 16, 2011. After delays in the acquisition of right-of-way, construction began in May 2013 and the expressway opened on July 24. Several other PPP projects were also either approved, constructed or completed during the Aquino administration: • The P9.89 billion PPP for School Infrastructure Project Phase 1, which the Aquino administration approved on December 19, 2011, aims address the backlog in the number of classrooms in public elementary and high schools in the Philippines by building 9,303 one-storey and two-storey classrooms, including furniture and fixtures, in various sites in Regions I, III and IV-A. The project was completed and inaugurated on January 6, 2016. • The P3.86 billion PPP for School Infrastructure Project Phase 2, which the Aquino administration approved on November 29, 2012. The project aims to construct 4,370 one-storey, two-storey, three-storey and four-storey classrooms, including furniture, fixtures, and toilets in 1,895 public schools in six regions (Regions I, II, III, X, CAR, and CARAGA). By October 31, 2015, 1,690 classrooms were already completed and delivered to the government, with the rest expected to be completed by the end of 2020. • The P1.72 billion Automated Fare Collection System for the MRT 3 and LRT Lines 1 and 2, which the Aquino administration approved in 2012, aims to decommission the old magnetic-based ticketing system and replace it with contactless-based smart card technology called the
Beep card, with the introduction of a centralized back office that will perform apportionment of revenues. AF Payments Inc., a joint venture of
Ayala Corporation and
Metro Pacific Investments Corporation won the contract to develop, operate and maintain the fare collection system. The company launched the Beep card in the MRT 3 and LRT Lines 1 and 2 on July 20, 2015. It has since been introduced in other forms of public transportation such as the
EDSA Busway,
BGC Bus and Cebu's Topline Express Ferries, as well as in convenience stores such as
7-Eleven and
Ministop. • The
P26.5 billion Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, a 14.8-kilometer, elevated expressway envisioned to decongest traffic in Metro Manila, is an extension of the original Skyway project from Buendia to Magallanes (Stage 1) and Magallanes to Alabang (Stage 2), which would connect it with the
North Luzon Expressway in
Caloocan. By the end of Aquino's term, only three of the 50 infrastructure projects under the PPP scheme have been completed.
Insurgency Narrative Report from
MILF Peace Panel Chair
Mohagher Iqbal during a meeting on June 23, 2016. Aquino rejected declaring a
state of emergency amid the
Moro National Liberation Front's (MNLF)
attempted occupation of
Zamboanga City in September 2013. Under the Aquino administration, the Philippine government heavily focused on pursuing peace talks with the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Following the
Mamasapano clash in
Maguindanao which resulted in the deaths of 44 members of the
Special Action Force (SAF) of the
Philippine National Police in January 2015, public support for the passage of the
Bangsamoro Basic Law, a bill establishing a Bangsamoro autonomous region, eroded; the law did not pass in the
16th Congress. In 2011, the Aquino administration began pursuing peace talks with the
Communist Party of the Philippines-
New People's Army-
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDF) through the 2011 Oslo Joint Statement, which was mediated by the Royal Norwegian Government. By February 2013, as a precondition to continuing the peace talks, the CPP-NPA-NDF demanded that the Philippine government release 18 of its high-level consultants and stop the military's Oplan Bayanihan counterinsurgency program. The Aquino administration rejected the imposition of the preconditions, questioning the leftist group as a reliable partner in negotiations. Counter-insurgency efforts continued, leading to the arrest of the CPP-NPA chairman
Benito Tiamzon and his wife, CPP-NPA secretary-general
Wilma on March 22, 2014. The Philippine government and the CPP-NPA ended their ceasefire agreement on January 20, 2015, days before the
Mamasapano clash.
Telecommunications Prompted by clamors for a government agency that will focus in handling
information and communications technology affairs, Aquino, in May 2016, signed a law creating the
Department of Information and Communications Technology. On August 14, 2010, Aquino directed the
Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to fully implement Executive Order No. 255, issued on July 25, 1987, by former
President Corazon Aquino, requiring all
radio stations to broadcast a minimum of four
original Filipino musical compositions every hour. In an effort to get feedback from people, Aquino launched his official presidential website on August 16, 2010. ==Foreign policies==