a SONA that foregoes the STATE of the nation
President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo has delivered the much anticipated State of the Nation Address last Monday, July 24. There were no 'bloody' rallies, but her SONA is met with much criticism by the opposition and critical thinkers, albeit praises from her supporters.
A few weeks before the SONA, PGMA issued an 'all-out war' to "terrorists" that entailed the whole country billions of pesos. It supposedly is to be spent on capturing people who are tagged as doing harm to its people and its country. Point number 1: 'terrorists' is such a vague term that could lead to the abuse of power to anybody whom the government finds 'against it'. It may be the reason for the widespread killings of media people and mass leaders, but I will delve into it later. Point number 2: a billion pesos is worth more than 999 million pesos. nine hundred and ninety-nine million pesos, when spelled out, seems far greater than 1 billion pesos- and this exaggeration is meant to make the readers feel how much the government has spent on the 'all-out war' against terrorists that we supposedly have to control and stop. This same 999 million pesos could have gone a long way if instead of allocating the budget to anti-terrorism, it was placed on education. We have to keep in mind that 'terrorism' and show of displeasure by certain mass groups and organization are brought about not because they are violent in nature and wants only the disruption of our society, but because there are things that trigger them to act as they do. I believe that improper allocation of funds such as this is the fire that causes people to create more smoke. We always say that the youth are the hope of the future. Why so? because education is the only thing that can be passed on; and if the government decides to cut on the budget of education, where now is the hope of the nation? Surely the youth cannot be the best that they can be if the money so important in making them finish school is cut away from them. Surely no good jobs will be offered to them if all they finished is high school.
I have cited only a brief background of what has happened to our nation in the last 2 months, and yet it has reflected the sympathy of many against the 'selfish' actions of the government. What I have written above is but a minute detail of what is really going on in our country- that which PGMA has refused, or neglected to discuss in her SONA. The State of the Nation Address is supposed to show to its people what the state of the nation is; SONA is not the proper avenue to propose plans and changes in the country. If it were so, then it should have been PONA-Plans on the Nation Address. I believe that the obvious diversion of the president from delving into the matters of the society is clear proof that there is something wrong about our current state, that is why she chose to talk about her plans that again, may or may not be accomplished, to the detriment of nobody else but its citizens.
If I were to discuss the PONA, and if I were an optimist (such lucrative plans for the 'superregions' are far too impossible to happen), then the PONA would have been ok. Why? Because first, she was the first Philippine president to use powerpoint integrated with her speech, which proves that she also cares that the people watching and listening to her not only watch and listen, but study the map and the proposed changes that she offers. This means that she really devoted time to detail the steps needed to make an ordinary region a 'superregion'. It is notable that she devoted more than half of her time to talk about the third phase of her plan, and that is the 'superregions'. The first and second phase which are fiscal reform and social expenditures were discussed all but briefly to give way to the 'most important' part of her speech on the superregions. One has to ask, then, whether her obvious interest in the 'superregions' has something to do with her desire for a parliamentary form of government. When one notes the time and effort she devoted to talk about the superregions, one may be led to conclude that this is a subtle way of conditioning the peoples' minds that when her idea of 'superregions' have succeeded, then we are now ready to take on Cha-Cha. But the problem is, these are only plans- the more important part is the implementation which is quite impossible to push through. I do not want to sound pessimistic, but the fact that all the money needed to spend for these 'superregions' are humongous, and definitely our budget is not cut out for such spending, we may have a hard and disappointing time putting these plans to action. She said that development plans for Northern Luzon have funds already. If we take her word for it, then it is good news for Northern Luzon; but what about the rest of the Philippines?
After her well-drafted plan for the 'superregions', PGMA went on to cite the more trivial state of the nation like dominating the SEAN games, winning international beauty titles, Filipinos reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, and our boxing champions; I do not mean to say that these things have no importance to our country. Sure, we pride on them and their accomplishments, but we have to be realistic enough to see that these "time-outs and entertainments" cannot, and will never be able to make-up for the lowering quality of education, the menial jobs that overqualified graduates are forced to take in order to make it through, the lives lost of the media men and active members of mass organizations, and many more that constitute a greater part of the real state of our nation.
PGMA ended with the call for unity of the Filipino people; that instead of picking up old fights, we have to join hands. Who is against this? I don't think nobody in their right minds would not want a better Philippines. I just think that hiding the truth of our nation's state is what is keeping us from succeeding. Instead of putting off the real concerns of our country, why not attack these things head on, propose plans to better them, and then ask the people to unite in bringing about positive change? As the saying goes, a wrongdoing cannot be corrected by another wrong. People need to acknowledge individual mistakes, plan corrective action with the consent of the whole, and then, unite in bringing forth change.
A few weeks before the SONA, PGMA issued an 'all-out war' to "terrorists" that entailed the whole country billions of pesos. It supposedly is to be spent on capturing people who are tagged as doing harm to its people and its country. Point number 1: 'terrorists' is such a vague term that could lead to the abuse of power to anybody whom the government finds 'against it'. It may be the reason for the widespread killings of media people and mass leaders, but I will delve into it later. Point number 2: a billion pesos is worth more than 999 million pesos. nine hundred and ninety-nine million pesos, when spelled out, seems far greater than 1 billion pesos- and this exaggeration is meant to make the readers feel how much the government has spent on the 'all-out war' against terrorists that we supposedly have to control and stop. This same 999 million pesos could have gone a long way if instead of allocating the budget to anti-terrorism, it was placed on education. We have to keep in mind that 'terrorism' and show of displeasure by certain mass groups and organization are brought about not because they are violent in nature and wants only the disruption of our society, but because there are things that trigger them to act as they do. I believe that improper allocation of funds such as this is the fire that causes people to create more smoke. We always say that the youth are the hope of the future. Why so? because education is the only thing that can be passed on; and if the government decides to cut on the budget of education, where now is the hope of the nation? Surely the youth cannot be the best that they can be if the money so important in making them finish school is cut away from them. Surely no good jobs will be offered to them if all they finished is high school.
I have cited only a brief background of what has happened to our nation in the last 2 months, and yet it has reflected the sympathy of many against the 'selfish' actions of the government. What I have written above is but a minute detail of what is really going on in our country- that which PGMA has refused, or neglected to discuss in her SONA. The State of the Nation Address is supposed to show to its people what the state of the nation is; SONA is not the proper avenue to propose plans and changes in the country. If it were so, then it should have been PONA-Plans on the Nation Address. I believe that the obvious diversion of the president from delving into the matters of the society is clear proof that there is something wrong about our current state, that is why she chose to talk about her plans that again, may or may not be accomplished, to the detriment of nobody else but its citizens.
If I were to discuss the PONA, and if I were an optimist (such lucrative plans for the 'superregions' are far too impossible to happen), then the PONA would have been ok. Why? Because first, she was the first Philippine president to use powerpoint integrated with her speech, which proves that she also cares that the people watching and listening to her not only watch and listen, but study the map and the proposed changes that she offers. This means that she really devoted time to detail the steps needed to make an ordinary region a 'superregion'. It is notable that she devoted more than half of her time to talk about the third phase of her plan, and that is the 'superregions'. The first and second phase which are fiscal reform and social expenditures were discussed all but briefly to give way to the 'most important' part of her speech on the superregions. One has to ask, then, whether her obvious interest in the 'superregions' has something to do with her desire for a parliamentary form of government. When one notes the time and effort she devoted to talk about the superregions, one may be led to conclude that this is a subtle way of conditioning the peoples' minds that when her idea of 'superregions' have succeeded, then we are now ready to take on Cha-Cha. But the problem is, these are only plans- the more important part is the implementation which is quite impossible to push through. I do not want to sound pessimistic, but the fact that all the money needed to spend for these 'superregions' are humongous, and definitely our budget is not cut out for such spending, we may have a hard and disappointing time putting these plans to action. She said that development plans for Northern Luzon have funds already. If we take her word for it, then it is good news for Northern Luzon; but what about the rest of the Philippines?
After her well-drafted plan for the 'superregions', PGMA went on to cite the more trivial state of the nation like dominating the SEAN games, winning international beauty titles, Filipinos reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, and our boxing champions; I do not mean to say that these things have no importance to our country. Sure, we pride on them and their accomplishments, but we have to be realistic enough to see that these "time-outs and entertainments" cannot, and will never be able to make-up for the lowering quality of education, the menial jobs that overqualified graduates are forced to take in order to make it through, the lives lost of the media men and active members of mass organizations, and many more that constitute a greater part of the real state of our nation.
PGMA ended with the call for unity of the Filipino people; that instead of picking up old fights, we have to join hands. Who is against this? I don't think nobody in their right minds would not want a better Philippines. I just think that hiding the truth of our nation's state is what is keeping us from succeeding. Instead of putting off the real concerns of our country, why not attack these things head on, propose plans to better them, and then ask the people to unite in bringing about positive change? As the saying goes, a wrongdoing cannot be corrected by another wrong. People need to acknowledge individual mistakes, plan corrective action with the consent of the whole, and then, unite in bringing forth change.
posted by shine queri @ 7/26/2006 07:45:00 AM
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