MANILA - The Aquino administration has just concluded its fourth year in office. Political analyst and UP professor Clarita Carlos gave Aquino 6 out of 10 for his performance so far. Carlos said the President showed genuine intent to follow the tuwid na daan but failed to make significant reforms in the bureaucracy. She said overlapping agencies and unclear lines of authority hinder the efficiency of the Aquino administration. "Never mind that you have the most noble intention and the best crafted policy. The bureaucracy can compromise it down the line," she said in an interview on ANC's Headstart. "(There are) agencies with overlaps, duplicates, unclear lines of authority. This administration has a penchant for...if things do not work, you get Lacson or what's his name Pangilinan. Why do you do that? You keep on adding to the layers of bureaucracy," she added. Carlos said critics cannot discount the gains the Aquino administration has made in the economy. She said government's drive to weed out corruption ultimately boosted investor confidence in the Philippines. Carlos also cited other achievements such as housing for the Armed Forces, low inflation and disaster response. "What worked is the potential that businessmen, whether local or foreign, had seen in this administration that it was relentless in its pursuit of corruption. So even if it was a promise and even while it took them quite a while before they could put people to prison... the impeachment of one high-ranked judicial official, it will matter to people who are looking for the meat, the beef for what the President continues to say is the straight path," she said. President Aquino is expected to enumerate government's achievements of the past four years during his State of the Nation Address on July 28. ANC, June 30, 2014
