Plan 201 Thought Paper

SONA 2008

For approximately an hour, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave her State of the National Address (SONA) in Batasan, Quezon City. The gist of the speech focused on the ongoing crisis for food and oil. She empathized with the poor as she paraded people from all walks of life as an exposition of the success of the administration for the last 7 years; and how she has prioritized their needs by spending time everyday with the underprivileged. She talked about family planning, graft and corruption, reforms, poverty and peace. Despite the waves of disasters and economic crises that our country has faced and are now facing, she pointed out immediate and long-term action plans that should seriously be implemented. She warned officials about being more accountable and “will not let no one’s political plans threaten the nation’s future.” We just fervently hope that behind her statements, these plans will materialize and not become plans forever. The whole length of her speech seemed that there is nothing really rotten anywhere. There was that impression that the government has all the money to cushion off the impact of crisis. Well that’s what SONAs are all about- annually reporting the positives, praises to a “job well done” to her mutiny of followers and definitely not on the past years’ failures.

President Arroyo mentioned the sad fact that at that stage when the Philippine economy almost had its budget balanced, had retired its debts, had improved the country’s development by investing on its citizens, then came the global crisis. She confidently proclaimed that even if this crisis caught our nation off guard, the government did not come unprepared. VAT was the government’s formula of securing funds in easing the economic condition of the poor- the sector in our society who is most affected by the monumental increase in prices of basic commodities and services. PGMA is risking 80 billion pesos funding for the poor if VAT is scrapped. When you look at the 80 billion peso-figure allotment for the poor, you are seeing high hopes for the multiplying numbers of poor illiterate children and worsening living standards of our poorest of the poor. The statement is a guilt-forming justification that without VAT, our poorest has no way out, which seemed to be a wrong argument because other than VAT, the government should have alternative strategies and carefully-laid out projects, coming from national investments, dedicated to the poor.

PGMA will continually push her administration to utilize and invest on our country’s growing assets, which she did not specify. I would suppose that these growing assets are most possibly our endless pool of human resources serving the economy of the first world, of which remittances, in no time, are splurged by relatives at the grandeur malls that the few affluent rich own. Generally, our poor today, particularly those in the urban areas, demonstrate the lifestyles of the social climbers, as one might observe how they prioritize auto-loading their mobile phones, instead of buying books. How gleeful they could have been when they heard how PGMA has enticed the telecom companies to reduce text message rate at 50-centavos, which until now have not been realized. As a common citizen, I would applause GMA if she encouraged wise spending and pointed out to parents of impoverished families to invest on their children’s education, as this is their ticket out of poverty.

If we are talking about growing natural resources, why didn’t we continue copra export as the Philippines’ has been the number one exporter of copra in the 70’s and 80’s? If rice growing does not adapt to our topography, why is it that only 10% of national rice consumption is imported from neighboring Thailand and China? Shouldn’t it be 50%? Then that would be an acceptable argument why we need to change crop course. If 10% is imported from our neighbors, why would PGMA mentioned that our overall rice production, since 2000, is annually increasing at P4B, twice the population growth rate? Why we import rice is probably because our government has sacrificed agricultural lands in the name of industrialization, the conversion of prime and irrigated agricultural lands into light, medium and heavy industries, who TNC’s invest on- well of course, to provide employment for the poor.

On being pursuant about anti-graft and corruption, a generous budget of 3 billion pesos is allocated for the ombudsman to follow after the thieves in the government. Since the president has the highest authority and has failing marks on her popularity survey polls, she should take advantage of it and declare martial law to all corrupt officials and government systems, thus effecting political will, speaking of long term. Billions of pesos are poured into the Mindanao region for many years. But because of Muslim corruption, a lot of it disappeared, benefited by the Moro social elite (datu system). This endemic corruption derailed whatever development plans the government had.

Looking at the glass being half full instead of being half empty, PGMA also announced how her governance has made the peso stronger from a P57-$1 last year, to P40-$1 a few months ago. Roro ports, serving nautical highways will number to 45 for the next 2 years.

Among the enumerated achievements the President has presented, the long existing issue on CARP was the evident highlight, which she interpreted in hundreds of thousand hectare figures. Though some of her critics may find this fictional and lacking in proof, agrarian reforms are the most savored and “longed for” good news that would eradicate the centuries-long problem of social inequality and wide economic gap between the rich and poor Filipinos. It is non-arguable that agrarian reform raises living standards. It keeps farmers on their feet aside from the ownership awarded to them. From the words of F. Sionil Jose “there is not enough land now to distribute for the tillers, but there are still ways which agricultural production can be improved so we would be self-sufficient on food, and with this, maximization, the twin objective of equity should also be pursued. Consolidation of more irrigation systems, rural credit and cooperatives, the banning of additional golf courses, and most of all, the introduction of agrarian reform in the sugar and coconut lands. Coconut was our main export product in the 70’s. In fact, urban land reform should also be pursued relentlessly.”

Remember, the SONA is a report of the president, who is only part of the government and not its entirety. SONA is sharing with the nation and congress on the path that the Executive aims to lead the country into. It is supposed to guide the legislative branch as to the priorities of the administration so that they can prioritize legislation to that direction. Though most of us have become tired and almost has nothing good to say, it is important that we should place high hopes for our country, for a country depends on the attitude of citizens it has. A lot of our political leaders have become grim reapers but it is up to us, our integrity, how we act on overcoming this moral delusion of being run by thieves.