Describing the State-of-the-Nation Address as both “defective and deficient,” the minority bloc in the House of Representatives Tuesday chided President Aquino and his subalterns for allegedly failing to use the SoNA as a weapon to advocate reforms and using it instead as a weapon “to vilify and destroy.”

Minority Leader Edcel Lagman delivered the traditional contra-SoNA from the House opposition, and enumerated 10 vital issues that the President failed to say even as he pointed out that it was bursting with wrong information and data about the alleged anomalies of the administration of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

At the outset, Lagman stressed that the minority has agreed “not to be obstructionist” or obstinate, saying that they offered the new government the hand of amity and cooperation.

He admitted having been cautioned “to go slow” on his contra-SoNA because Aquino enjoys strong public support.

“But when the emperor wears no clothes, can I honestly tell you that his robe is regal and majestic?” the veteran lawmaker said.

He said the contra-SoNA was being delivered to straighten out facts and figures of the President, “buoy up” people’s faith in government institutions, maintain investor confidence, and prevent capital flight that may have been instigated by the SoNA which had triggered doubt and despair.

According to Lagman the President failed to mention how his administration will pursue “sustainable human development” and state a policy on agrarian reform program that was the centerpiece program of his mother, the late President Corazon C. Aquino.

Promotion of human rights and protection of civil liberties, climate change, and enhancing the condition of workers were also missed by Aquino.

“The Freedom of Information Bill, which should be revisited, debated, refined, and amended, is nowhere to be found in the SoNA,” Lagman said.

He added: “There is no debt service reduction policy and how the administration will address the issue of fraudulent loans.”

Lagman, who lost in a 227-29 speakership contest to Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr., complained that the SoNA was not a blueprint for development and policy direction and was instead “generally a partisan press release, a complaint sheet, a compendium of motherhood statements and a continuation of campaign rhetoric.”

He said the much-vaunted Truth Commission suffers from “constitutional infirmities” when such bodies were created in other countries as an “important part of healing process.”

According to him the P196.7-billion budget deficit incurred by the Arroyo government is “manageable” as stated by impartial economists.

“As if to seek pity, the President said that what remains of the P1.540 trillion national budget is only P100 billion or 6.5 % of the total annual appropriations,” he said.

However, the Bureau of Treasury has certified that the total disbursement of government expenditures as of June 30 was P788 billion, thus, indicating that P751 billion remains unspent.”

“The problem in the President’s accounting must have been caused by lack of understanding of the difference between allocation as covered by a special allotment release order and actual disbursement to pay accrued or matured obligations,” Lagman explained.

Meanwhile, former President Arroyo's spokeswoman said Tuesday President Aquino's SoNA did not clarify which figures he was citing when he said only P100 billion remains in the annual budget.

Elena Bautista-Horn said Mr. Aquino's figures are different from the official figures on government expenditures from January to June which were released by the Bureau of Treasury, the agency which records the actual spending of the national government.

The Bureau of Treasury released last July 21, 2010, when it was already under Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, the official figures of the government's actual disbursements from the national budget.

"For January to June, 2010, total disbursements amounted to P788.8 billion, 13% higher than the comparable disbursements in 2009. Excluding interest payments, total disbursements increased by 16%. Actual disbursements in June amounted to P126.7 billion," the bureau's statement said.

Horn said Mr. Aquino should clarify how he arrived at the figures that only P100 billion in the national budget is available for his government for the remainder of the year, because the official figures indicate that about 49 percent of the P1.54-trillion national budget remains unspent.