JEERS: EMPTY, PLAY-SAFE SPEECH / STILL NO DIRECTION FROM WEAK SPEECH
MANILA, JULY 27, 2011 (STAR) - Not all lawmakers were impressed by President Aquino's State of the Nation Address (SONA), describing it as "empty" and lacking a clear roadmap on where he intends to bring the country in the next five years.
"The President's intentions are there but are they being implemented? I mean, are his people doing their jobs? We also have to check the accuracy of his figures, especially on unemployment," House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said. "That's the problem if we don't have oversight in Congress."
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong said the SONA was dismal as it was "dominated by 'wang-wang' and bashing of the past administration as well as praises for some officials in government."
Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said the people were expecting some announcements on how Aquino intends to lower prices of fuel and basic commodities.
Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla also expressed disappointment saying there was no economic plan unveiled in the SONA.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat expressed disappointment over Aquino's failure to touch on Freedom of Information bill and the Reproductive Health bill.
"But the play-safe, feel good rhetoric won in the speech's styling," Baguilat said.
Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo described Aquino's SONA as "full of sound bites but lacking in substance."
"Just like last year, it seems there is still no clear direction where the country is going," Arroyo said. "I was hoping to hear more of the so-called Aquinomics but unfortunately, from start to finish, it's all wang-wang that I hear."
Still other sectors were not satisfied with the President's speech, which focused on his accomplishments in his first year and tackled the different graft practices of the past administration.
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippines Exporters Confederation, said he didn't think the speech was meant more for the businessmen but his message for the business community was the assurance of a clean government.
"He did not really talk much about business aspects such as the PPP (Private-Public Partnership program). I was also hoping he would mention something about support for exports. But that's his style. He has a different style," Ortiz said.
"He was focused on the social aspects, such as health and education, on the issue of graft and corruption," said Earl Parreño, an analyst of the Institute of Political and Electoral Reforms.
He said the President's SONA lacked in vision and there was no clear map for the next five years.
"He just reported on what he has done, but I didn't hear where he wanted the country to go in five years. This is not only about anti-corruption, this should be vision-setting and direction-setting," Parreño said.
Former budget secretary and economics professor Benjamin Diokno said the speech was lacking in vision and there was no grand plan for the coming years.
"He was talking of things he wants to do in a small way, like in graft and corruption. But where does he want to carry us from here until 2016? I didn't hear him say that. I think that should have been discussed," he said.
A vacillating president
The non-governmental Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg), on the other hand, described the President as "a vacillating president of his own class."
In a statement, CenPeg political analyst Bobby Tuazon said Aquino had won the 2010 polls with a promise to show a "transformational leadership and a 'daang matuwid (righteous path)' with the people as the real boss."
"But sadly he had bungled the chance by not using his first year to provide the roadmap for real change. Aquino chose political patronage by primarily appointing his friends and classmates to high positions in government. Instead of change-oriented policies, he merely rehashed the programs of his predecessor which for nine years only brought unprecedented unemployment, high prices, food insecurity, and uncertainties in the peace process, among other problems," Tuazon said.
He said the President had also failed to lay down "concrete and well-studied programs towards strategic institutional reforms in order to recover the people's trust in government and move the nation forward to social development.
"If Aquino is really serious in providing transformational leadership he should transform himself first by removing his elitist orientation and ways as shown in the scandalous luxury car purchase in a country," he added.
Religious organizations that are against the Reproductive Health bill said they are praying that President Aquino would be enlightened about his responsibilities and uphold the truth on the importance of the family, marriage and life.
"We pray that he would not be misled. He has been receiving pressures from those who are giving or promising to give assistance to the government. We are praying and hoping that he would reject the population control cum RH bill," the group said.
They reiterated that the passage of the RH bill was unnecessary, totally unconstitutional and completely oppressive. They consider it null and void from the beginning. They also fear that it would further divide the country.
Militant groups also protested in different parts of the country to dramatize their displeasure with the President's performance in his first year in office.
Up north, the left-leaning group Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) ate boiled sayote for lunch to demonstrate Aquino's failing mark in terms of solving poverty in the country.
"President Aquino's promises of hope and change at the start of his term amounted to nothing as he merely continued many of the past regime's policies and programs that violate people's rights," said CPA chairman Wyndle Bolinget.
More than 10,000 farmers led by members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) from various parts of Mindanao also held a massive rally in Davao City.
KMP-Southern Mindanao secretary-general Pedro Arnado said the protest would be for the farmers to present their own version of the SONA compared to what the President would have to say.
Arnado said the farmers' protest is actually the real state of the nation as they represent the marginalized sector of society.
The KMP also gave the President a failing grade for failing to address the issues pertaining to the farmers as well as in refusing to push for the pending Agrarian Reform bill.
AFP on alert
The military made sure that no untoward incidents happen in their respective turfs during the President's SONA.
No disturbances were reported in Bulacan, the seat of several protest actions in the past.
"There is no protest or mobilization of militant groups in Bulacan," said Col. Hilario Vicente Lagnada, the commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion (IB) based in San Jose del Monte.
The 56th IB has deployed monitoring teams in the province as early as last week. Lagnada said the lack of protest action in the province was partly due to the decrease of capability of New People's Army (NPA) rebels in the province.
In the past, militant groups in Bulacan, which the military claimed have connections with the rebels, used to stage protest actions on or before the President's SONA.
The military has also placed the government forces in southern Philippines under alert to avert lawless elements from staging attacks while the President was delivering his SONA.
Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang, spokesman for Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) said internal security operations have been ongoing in areas known to have presence of various armed groups, including NPA lost command rebels, and Abu Sayyaf militants. – Paolo Romero, Sheila Crisostomo, Rhodina Villanueva, Edith Regalado, Evelyn Macairan, Artemio Dumlao, Dino Balabo, Roel Pareño, Ben Serrano
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Diokno: Still no direction from Aquino in weak speech 07/26/2011
Weak and lacks focus, that was how economist and former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno rated President Aquino's second State of the Nation Address (Sona) yesterday.
Diokno noted that the speech which lasted for almost an hour failed to address basic lingering questions among many in improving their economic condition. He said the speech is even wanting on accuracy as the country received only one upgrade in credit rating and three improved outlook grade in contrast to Aquino's claim of four ratings upgrade during his term.
"Jobs creation should have been the focus. Half of the jobs created (during Aquino's term) were in agriculture. That is a sign of
retrogression, not progress," he said.
He said that more important for the majority of poor Filipinos was the state of unemployment and the availability of jobs rather than the rising stock market indices.
He added that many were waiting for Aquino to discuss growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) and the distribution of such growth in the social strate rather than the rising gross international reserves and that a report on the static tax effort which is reflected in the tax to GDP ratio is more important rather than the lower than planned budget deficit.
Growth in the economy during the first half considerably slowed compared to 2010 as a result of base effect with the unusually high growth in the election-spending fueled period a year ago and that the recovery in the world economy turned out to be much weaker than expected.
He, however, added that a major reason for the slowdown was "self-inflicted" with the administration's underspending in public infrastructure and essential public services during the period.
"The school building program has yet to be started and none of the authorized funding has been released to date and practically none of the large public works projects for 2011 has been started," he added.
The first quarter GDP growth of 4.9 percent was behind the target of a seven to eight percent growth for the year and the second semester growth is likely to be in the neighborhood of five percent and could be nearer 4.5 percent if we assume the worst impact of the Japanese tragedy, slowing exports and the impact of the political crises in North Africa and the Middle East on overseas Filipino workers OFW workers, he said.
Diokno said a five percent growth this year would have little impact on improving the lives of 40 million poor Filipinos.
He also challenged the claim of Aquino that the poverty level was reduced during his term.
"More than a third of Filipinos were poor based on official statistics and the proportion of poor people was 34 percent in 2000, 34.7 percent in 2003, 36.6 percent in 2006, and 37.3 percent in 2009. But because population has been growing rapidly, the number of Filipinos who are poor has been rising, despite the decade-long sustained growth of 4.9 percent," he said.
He added official statistics show that income inequality is the highest in the Philippines compared to its neighbors last year.
He added that a necessary condition for growth to be inclusive is for it to be accompanied by the creation of a sufficiently large number of decent jobs for an ever increasing supply of new workers, just any job won't do.
Aquino said that from April 2010 to April 2011, some 1.4 million new jobs were created but the reality is that almost half of those newly created jobs, or 679,000, were in agriculture.
"Most of these jobs have to be low-paying, part-time, and poorly productive. How can a sector that has barely grown absorb so many workers?," Diokno added.
He noted that included in the claim of employed Filipinos are the 1 million tricycle drivers in the country and the so-called "unpaid family workers".
"From 4,179,000 in April 2010, the number of unpaid family workers has grown to 4,382,000 in April 2011, or by 203,000. In reality, these workers are idle and should be added to the ranks of the unemployed," he added.
The dismal reality is that the quality of jobs has deteriorated and the unemployment rate of 7.2 percent is the worst in the region, he said.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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