SONA... hay nanaman... Lasallian Civilian watch/SONA

I have prepared a reaction to the SONA of PGMA

As a College Studen, this is the very first time in my life to read the President’s State-Of-the-Nation-Address (SONA) and ask my parents the comparison of last year’s President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State-Of-The-Nation-Address. Based on my own opinion and my untiring efforts gathering opinion of different people from all walks of life, almost the same thing compared to that of last year’s SONA. The President chronologically enumerates and boasting her accomplishments for the past eight (8) years of public service. Because of this the people are no longer blinded by her glowing account of the country’s economy. Her rating as the country’s chief executive continue to fall that clearly manifests the people’s displeasure of her presidency no matter what her economic managers would say. Again the SONA focuses on disaster management. The president wants to ensure that a repeat of such incident in the future could be prevented through intensified disaster preparedness program and updated rescue and relief operations guidelines. In line with this, I salute the President if all of this got materialized. She boasted the strongest economic growth during the last quarter of year 2007, inflation was low, peso was strong versus the US dollar and more new jobs were created, to mention a few. If all of these are at hand, why do the Filipino people continue to suffer the worst effects of the crisis despite the strong economic growth as alleged by the administration. Where are the money she promised to care for our people and pay for food when there are shortages. She insists, she is in control of the situation, accordingly she is accessible to the needy and spend time everyday with the underprivileged. Reports say that OFW’s continue to rise in figures seeking for greener pasture abroad to support and fed their respective families. Where are the new jobs created? Why Juan, Pedro and others still preferred to work abroad if there are already jobs created at home? As a result, some critics say those are all fictions along with other facts and figures she cited in her SONA. Most of her promises to the masses were not met, because some cabinet official and LGU’s did not implement the policy formulated properly, like for example the comprehensive agrarian reform program most specifically the unstoppable conversion of farmland into residential lands, thus contributed to the alleged shortage of rice all over the country. Why not formulate a stricter policy relative to this problem. The construction of public highways, bridges, irrigations and the like is one way of source of kick-backs on the part of the concerned public officials, AFP Engineers are best alternatives to do the country’s infrastructure projects vice the questionable contractors to lessen expenses and make use of the earned money for other more important and livelihood projects. The aborted MOA signing between GRP-MILF regarding the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity without the knowledge of the people of Mindanao. If not for the early action of the Supreme Court the Philippines could have been divided and rest assure of more conflict between Christians and Muslim brothers. The increased in housing loans is favorable to the rich families and unfavorable on the part of the middle class earners and people living below the poverty line who can not afford and avail. Indigent areas are pinpointed, why not concentrate to this areas The government overlook the welfare of the people living in the remote provinces, wherein hospitals, school buildings, shelter, food are insufficient. The government should prioritized the solution of the continuing and unstoppable price increase of all petroleum products, electricity, prime commodities, fare in public conveyances, etc are additional burden to the life of the Filipino people. The price watchdogs are not doing their job properly, hence, they are “inutil”. On the part of the Department of Education, promises of additional school buildings are partly scarce. The government should also focus on the immediate construction of additional school buildings, by doing so, the problem of out of school youth tends to lessen the number. The present administration enacted the Solid Waste Management Act, purposely for a zero waste community, a very poor implementation is again noted to this effect. Widespread flooding during rainy days are expected to occur as a result of clogged drainage systems and sewer lines, because of government’s inability to look closer into it and solved the problem. Creation of Procurement Transparency Group is not necessary because the present set up and system of the government are already prone to corruption and tend to exist all the way. Disagreements of the three branches of the government continue to exist that lead to the division of our society. Management, trust and confidence and the will of the people are the factors to be considered for a better and progressive nation. As I go along, I noticed the exclusion of the most awaited controversy during the 2004 national election, the “Garci tape conversation” and the “ZTE Broadband Scandal”. It is the President’s responsibility to take care to solve the problems we are facing now and to provide a vision and direction for how our nation should advance in the future.

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