MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE 4) President Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III bared in his first State of the Nation Address a series of irregularities allegedly committed by the past administration, as he vowed to be the opposite of his predecessor.

Aquino spent the first half of his speech outlining alleged anomalies by former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration that he said had left the nation's coffers nearly bare after nine years.

"For a long time, our country lost its way on a crooked path," Aquino, who took office on June 30, told Congress.

"As days go by, the massive scope of the problems we have inherited becomes much clearer. I can almost feel the weight of my responsibilities," he said.

"This report is merely a glimpse of our situation. It is not the entire picture of the crises we are facing. The reality was hidden from our people," Aquino said, as he vowed his administration would be the opposite of Arroyo's.

"We will stop wasteful spending of public funds... we will get rid of ill-conceived projects... there will be no padding of contracts," he said.

Aquino disclosed alleged anomalies that were committed at the Metropolitan Water Sewerage System (MWSS), in the distribution of calamity funds, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the National Power Corp. (Napocor), and the National Food Authority (NFA), among others.

Aquino claimed that members of the Metropolitan Water Sewerage System (MWSS) board of trustees have been receiving a whopping P98, 000 in allowances every month, excluding the service vehicles being provided to them.

Aquino said that in 2009, a total of P211.5 million was allocated for salaries, allowances and other benefits for MWSS but that only P51.4 million or 24 percent of the budget went to payroll.

?The ordinary worker gets only his 13th month pay plus cash gift. At the MWSS, one gets pay, bonuses and allowances equivalent to 30 months,? said the President in Filipino.

But Aquino said he was more shocked by the compensation that the members of board of trustees were getting.

?Mas matindi po ang natuklasan natin sa pasahod ng kanilang board of trustees [The benefits they give their board of trustees were much, much more],? he said.

?The allowances that they receive, by just sitting at the board of trustees and board committee meetings, already amount to P14 million. This translates to P98,000 a month. Then there are grocery incentives of up to P80 million a year. Then there is the May midyear bonus, productivity bonus, anniversary bonus, year-end bonus and financial assistance. There is also the Christmas bonus with additional Christmas package,? he said.

?Uulitin ko po, lahat ng ito ay binigay nila sa kanilang mga sarili habang hindi pa nababayaran ang mga pension ng kanilang mga retirees [Let me repeat that all these they gave to themselves while their retirement pensions have not been paid],? he said.

But these MWSS officials, Aquino said, were midnight appointees by Arroyo and could not be forced to leave their posts.

He vowed that they would be investigated and challenged them ?to resign voluntarily if there is any shame left in them.?

Aquino also bared that of the P108-million calamity fund for Pampanga, the province of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, P105 million went to only one district.

?Of the whole P108 million for the province of Pampanga, P105 million went to only one district while in the province of Pangasinan that was ravaged by Pepeng, only P5 million was given and it was even for typhoon Cosme that hit the province in 2009,? Aquino said in Filipino.

?The funds for Pampanga were given on election month, seven months after Ondoy and Pepeng. What if there is a typhoon tomorrow?? Aquino asked.

At the DPWH, the President revealed what he described as ?unstudied and unprepared for? projects that sprouted ?like mushrooms.?

He said the DPWH allocated P425 million from motor vehicle user's charge to fund 246 priority safety projects but ended up funding only 28.

?They disregarded 218 projects and replaced these with seventy projects that weren?t in the plans. The P425 million originally asked for became P480 million, increasing because of projects allocated for a favored few,? said Aquino.

Also five days before the term of the previous administration ended, the President said the government ordered P3.5 billion pesos for the rehabilitation of those affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng supposedly to fund 89 projects.

But 19 of these projects amounting to P981 million didn?t go through public bidding, said Aquino.
?Special Allotment Release Orders hadn?t even been released and yet the contracts were already signed,? he said.

?It?s a good thing [newly appointed DPWH] Secretary Rogelio Singson spotted and stopped them. Instead, they will all go through the proper bidding, and the funds will be used to provide relief to those who lost their homes due to typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng,? he said.

In Napocor, Aquino disclosed how the past government used the debt-ridden agency for politics.
He said the Arroyo government forced Napocor to sell electricity at a loss supposedly to prevent increases in electricity rates.

?The real motivation for this is that they were preparing for the election,? Aquino said.

?As a result, in 2004, Napocor slumped deeply in debt. The government was obligated to shoulder the 200 billion pesos it owed,? he pointed out.

At the office of the NFA, the President said billions of pesos worth of rice were left to rot at its warehouse that resulted in the agency's current debt of P177 billion.

Aquino said the NFA bought 900,00 metric tons of rice in 2004 when the shortage was only 117,000 metric tons and in 2007, the shortage was 589,000 metric tons but the government bought 1.827 million metric tons.

?Even if you multiply for more than three times the amount of shortage, they again bought more than what was needed,? he said.

?What hurts is, because they keep purchasing more than what they need year after year, the excess rice that had to be stored in warehouses ended up rotting, just like what happened in 2008,? said Aquino.

?Is this not a crime, letting rice rot, despite the fact that there are 4 million Filipinos who do not eat three times a day? The result is NFA?s current debt of P177 billion,? he said.

Aquino has vowed in recent weeks to have Arroyo, who was required by constitutional term limits to step down, investigated and possibly prosecuted for her alleged corrupt activities.

He said Monday that a "Truth Commission" to investigate Arroyo's alleged wrongdoings would be set up this week.

"We will go after the corrupt," Aquino said.

"We will find the truth in all the hidden wrongdoing that happened in the last nine years."

Arroyo took the unprecedented step for a sitting president of running for a seat in the House of Representatives in the elections, a move widely seen as part of a strategy to shield herself from prosecution.

She easily won the seat representing her home province and was meant to sit in parliament to hear the State of the Nation address.

But Arroyo flew to Hong Kong on Sunday, with her aides, saying she went there to support her husband while he visited a doctor.

Aquino, who won national elections in May by a landslide after campaigning on a promise to fight corruption, delivered his address knowing he had unprecedented support from the public.

A survey by pollster Pulse Asia released on Monday showed that an overwhelming majority of Filipinos trusted Aquino and the officials he had appointed in his cabinet.

"President Aquino appears to be off to a good start with 85 percent of Filipinos expressing trust in him," Pulse Asia said.

This was the highest rating ever recorded by any leader since the group began its trust surveys in 1999, it said.