Being attached to my course in some degree, I am one of the few Filipino students who was glued to their seats just to watch and criticize President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s last State of the Nation Address, of course as anticipated, I knew that she was going to “raise her own stool” and brag about the accomplishments of her administration, well actually all her precursors have done likewise. And based from the “Hello Garci” incident I knew that she wasn’t going to admit her mistakes or shortcomings. But the real question is. “Were the accomplishments she bragged about truthful?” Well generally speaking her administration was able to achieve a lot in terms of fiscal financial and infrastructure projects. Who wouldn’t achieve those with a budget of almost 9 trillion from the years 2001 to 2009 right? It’s expected of her to do such projects. But the real issue is not whether she was able to achieve anything, but if she delivered what she promised in her 1st SONA. Unfortunately like the other politicians she made promises but forgot about them anyways. In one of her SONAs I remember the BEAT THE ODDS legacy that would leave a mark on the Filipino People by the year 2010, sadly in her SONA, she didn’t mention anything about her Beat the Odd:
B - Balanced budget,
E- Education,
A- Automated Elections,
T- Transportation and Digital Infrastructure,
T- Terminate Hostilities with the NPA and MILF,
H- Healing the wounds of Edsa's 1, 2 and 3,
E- Electricity and Water for all,
O- Opportunities for livelihood and ten million jobs,
D- Decongestion of Metro Manila,
D- Develop Subic and Clark
The first erroneous claim is on education. During Arroyo’s first six years she neglected elementary and high school education. Consequently progress in education has been lethargic. Enrollment ratio has worsened – from 96.8 percent in 2000 to 83.3 percent in 2006. Translation: 17 out of 100 children of school age are out school. Sadly the Arroyo administration brags about the outcomes like better test scores and literacy when in fact the inputs such as buildings, textbooks and schools are in awful conditions.
The second evident inaccuracy is her claim on jobs. The government’s goal was to create 1.7 million new jobs every year however 2.8 million jobs were created between years 2004-2008 or roughly 700,000 jobs every year. That’s far from the 10 million jobs she promised from her previous SONA. The increasing number of overseas workers is also proof that the domestic economy is not that well, and that the government has failed to provide enough jobs for Filipinos in the homeland.
Lastly when she stated that the number of poor people decreased by 2 million, Oh my God I swear I almost fell off my chair. In the year 2006 alone, figures showed that poor people increased by 2.8 million. I really don’t know where she got her data at all.
Let’s say some of her accomplishments were accurate, but I still I thought that her SONA was a:
S-imply
O-ver-exaggerated
N-arrated
A-nnouncement
A lot of issues came to life during her administration, for this reason no matter what accomplishments transpired during her administration, my trust and faith isn’t tantamount to her achievements. I thought that when she replaced President Estrada, she would be able to lessen corruption in the government and promote transparency. As a citizen of the Philippines, I wanted a president who I can look up to and not be ashamed about. Nonetheless I am very optimistic and hopeful that the new administration led by President Benigno III will usher in change that every Filipino aspires for.
Lastly, President Arroyo’s 1st SONA included the three pillars of foreign policy, which are: preservation and enhancement of national diplomacy, promotion and attainment of economic security through the mobilization of eternal resources for economic advancement and lastly protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare and interests of Filipino overseas. I must admit President Arroyo integrated domestic and international sphere in her SONA, she presented a direction, a roadmap where she wants to take the country to. On the other hand, President Benigno Aquino IIII’s first SONA was commendable for giving a very straightforward SONA in a language understood by the people. He was frank and honest about the wastefulness of the past administration and he was correct when he pointed out that it is a must to investigate these issues in order to see the root cause of the problems in order to give a best viable solution for it. His speech lacked some points in substantial discussions on foreign policies, agricultural issues, and other sectors that are crucial. Nonetheless I tried to view it from another perspective on why he chose to focus on the economic/domestic sphere. I think he wanted to fix and reform the domestic sphere before venturing out to the international sphere because if he fixes the core, the other outside spheres will follow.
In my humble opinion I predict the President Benigno Aquino III’s plans will yield a fruitful outcome. He just started as the new president and I have seen that he has tried his best to set a good example not only to the politicians but to us citizens as well. I believe in our new president and I think that he will be able to deliver what he pledges, that is why, I predict that in his final SONA he would include the transformations of the government where corruption might be evident but very minimal as compared to the past administrations and I also believe that it will include his accomplishments in the domestic and international sphere.
B - Balanced budget,
E- Education,
A- Automated Elections,
T- Transportation and Digital Infrastructure,
T- Terminate Hostilities with the NPA and MILF,
H- Healing the wounds of Edsa's 1, 2 and 3,
E- Electricity and Water for all,
O- Opportunities for livelihood and ten million jobs,
D- Decongestion of Metro Manila,
D- Develop Subic and Clark
The first erroneous claim is on education. During Arroyo’s first six years she neglected elementary and high school education. Consequently progress in education has been lethargic. Enrollment ratio has worsened – from 96.8 percent in 2000 to 83.3 percent in 2006. Translation: 17 out of 100 children of school age are out school. Sadly the Arroyo administration brags about the outcomes like better test scores and literacy when in fact the inputs such as buildings, textbooks and schools are in awful conditions.
The second evident inaccuracy is her claim on jobs. The government’s goal was to create 1.7 million new jobs every year however 2.8 million jobs were created between years 2004-2008 or roughly 700,000 jobs every year. That’s far from the 10 million jobs she promised from her previous SONA. The increasing number of overseas workers is also proof that the domestic economy is not that well, and that the government has failed to provide enough jobs for Filipinos in the homeland.
Lastly when she stated that the number of poor people decreased by 2 million, Oh my God I swear I almost fell off my chair. In the year 2006 alone, figures showed that poor people increased by 2.8 million. I really don’t know where she got her data at all.
Let’s say some of her accomplishments were accurate, but I still I thought that her SONA was a:
S-imply
O-ver-exaggerated
N-arrated
A-nnouncement
A lot of issues came to life during her administration, for this reason no matter what accomplishments transpired during her administration, my trust and faith isn’t tantamount to her achievements. I thought that when she replaced President Estrada, she would be able to lessen corruption in the government and promote transparency. As a citizen of the Philippines, I wanted a president who I can look up to and not be ashamed about. Nonetheless I am very optimistic and hopeful that the new administration led by President Benigno III will usher in change that every Filipino aspires for.
Lastly, President Arroyo’s 1st SONA included the three pillars of foreign policy, which are: preservation and enhancement of national diplomacy, promotion and attainment of economic security through the mobilization of eternal resources for economic advancement and lastly protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare and interests of Filipino overseas. I must admit President Arroyo integrated domestic and international sphere in her SONA, she presented a direction, a roadmap where she wants to take the country to. On the other hand, President Benigno Aquino IIII’s first SONA was commendable for giving a very straightforward SONA in a language understood by the people. He was frank and honest about the wastefulness of the past administration and he was correct when he pointed out that it is a must to investigate these issues in order to see the root cause of the problems in order to give a best viable solution for it. His speech lacked some points in substantial discussions on foreign policies, agricultural issues, and other sectors that are crucial. Nonetheless I tried to view it from another perspective on why he chose to focus on the economic/domestic sphere. I think he wanted to fix and reform the domestic sphere before venturing out to the international sphere because if he fixes the core, the other outside spheres will follow.
In my humble opinion I predict the President Benigno Aquino III’s plans will yield a fruitful outcome. He just started as the new president and I have seen that he has tried his best to set a good example not only to the politicians but to us citizens as well. I believe in our new president and I think that he will be able to deliver what he pledges, that is why, I predict that in his final SONA he would include the transformations of the government where corruption might be evident but very minimal as compared to the past administrations and I also believe that it will include his accomplishments in the domestic and international sphere.
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